Geronimo
by charmenna
Summary: Emily is a woman who is fighting for her own life, when by chance she encounters a group of people that we all know and love. She never expected to find something more than companionship, but when she meets a certain Rick Grimes, her world gets turned upside down. Rick/OC
1. Chapter 1

, first story since like, 2009. Now, I'm returning with some much improved English, and a new story in mind. Hope you all enjoy and review!

Disclaimer; I wish I did own TWD, but I do not. Really, I don't own one scrap of it.

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If anyone would have asked her three years ago where she thought that she would be by now, walking through mud and decapited heads of the living dead was not something that sprung to mind. Emily was really surprised that she had made it this long without getting bit or you know- eaten alive. Which apparently was a trend that was quickly catching on amongst still breathing folks. She really did think that nothing could catch her off guard anymore, but when a member of her group came back from a run with a human torso in hand, she realized that she was quite mistaken. She had met up with a group of people no longer then two-three weeks ago, after being along for quite some time. They had seemed alright at first, although Emily kept her guard up, just in case. The men of the group mentioned something about tracking a group of people that had burned their home to the ground, and asked for her assistance. In return, she would get a place in their new home, which they apparently had set up. Emily made herself very clear that she wanted no part in killing other people, but they had assured her that she would not need to. However, once she saw that guy walking with an entire torso towards their camp, announcing that dinner was here, she was a goner. They hadn't chased her at all, which she would have found odd if she had stopped to look back.

After making sure that the last walker was properly dead, Emily wiped off her machete with a piece of cloth and then headed towards a small stream to get it properly cleaned off. She caught a glimpse of herself, reflected in the water. She had never been a model-sized woman, she had always had curves and a healthy glow to her. Now, living on a diet of squirrels and berries for quite some time had made her loose a lot of weight. It pained her to see herself this thin, her face was hollowed out and she reckoned that it wasn't just the water that made her skin look so grey. Her dark-brown hair was kept in a ponytail, and her checkered shirt hang loosely on her torso. The black jeans that she had found in an abadoned camp were about a size too big, but she was in no position to pass up a pair of pants that didn't have about a thousand holes in them. She sighed to herself and tore her eyes from her own reflection to grab her newly cleaned weapon so that she could keep moving. She had just gotten to her feet when she heard a noise. It was not something that she thought she would ever hear again;

A baby whailing.

Emily's eyes darted around, trying to distinguish where the sound came from. She couldn't leave now, not before making sure that the baby was not alone out here in the woods. She started to follow the baby's cries, and as the cries grew louder, she walked faster. Just as she was about to clear away some branches to get a good look at the child in need, she heard a man's voice.

"It's alright, little girl. Daddy's here darlin'."

The baby stopped crying and Emily decided that she would do best to turn around and walk away. However, that was not an option as she suddenly felt something cold and hard press up against her neck. When it clicked, she realized that it was a gun. "You would do best in turnin' around slowly, girl. Don't try nothin'." A dark manly voice threatened.

Emily gulped and started to slowly turn around to face the man who had her at gun-point. The man who faced her was about as long as she was, with a stern expression, a crossbow over his shoulder and clad in a leather vest. "Listen, I heard the kid crying and I thought I would check it out, I didn't want to leave a baby all alone if that was what the situation was. I can see now that's clearly not the case, and if you would just let me go, I will let you return to your cross-bowing duties, okay?" she rambled, not really making any sense at all. The man raised a brow at her, and without taking his gaze off of her, he whistled loudly and said: "'Ey, Rick! C'mere!"

Emily heard some rustling, and a few seconds later another man appeared. He had a full beard, locks that clearly had not been cut for a few months and piercing blue eyes. If she had not been in this dire situation, she would gawk at him a bit more. For now, looking at the gun that was pointed towards her seemed more pressing. "Who's this?" Asked the handsome man who's name appeared to be Rick, and Emily reckognized him as the voice who had comforted the crying baby. "Dunno', caught her sneakin' on you and the baby." The leather-clad man said, clear mistrust in his eyes. "I wasn't sneaking, I was just trying to make sure that there wasn't a baby all alone in the woods. I don't have to be a monster just because the world's gone to shit." Emily spat, she wasn't going to be made out to be some.. Bad person. "Honestly, in this day and age, can you really blame us?" Rick asked, looking at her sternly. "You seem to have been on the move for some time. Why?" . Emily did not quite know how to best explain her story, so she just drew the short version. "I was with my sister and her husband until we ran into a herd and they both got eaten. I barely got away, but I managed to steal this machete and then I was on my way. Figured that the woods would be safer than the city, I was wrong. Saw some smoke in the air a couple of weeks back and then I ran into a few guys who said that they were trying to track down a group of people, apparently for some home-destruction. I joined them until I briskly found out that they were on the market for eating some tender human-meat, that's when I bailed, which was like four days ago. That's it."

She saw Rick's gaze go from stern to surprised, and he looked at his companion who had the exact same expression on his face. Emily did not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what the men were surprised about. "And I'm guessing that you two are part of the group that burned their home to the ground, huh?"

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Excited? Review pleaase, I am so anxious to hear someone else's opinion on this!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again! Just watched the new episode, and it's insaaane. Gah, that show is pure magic. Anyway, I'm glad the first chapter got some views, and I'm gonna say this now, updates probably won't be as frequent as they are now, seeing as I do study full-time (Going to teach English and history to 16-19 year olds, fab (This explains the long paragraphs as well, lot's and lot's of essay-writing, but I will try to shorten them a bit :D )) buut seing as I am so excited to get this show on the road, a few more chapters will be coming out quite shortly, before I resume to updating probably once or twice a week. :)

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"_And I'm guessing that you two are part of the group that burned their home to the ground, huh?" _

Emily immedietly regretted her words. She should not have put two strange men, one of whom was holding her at gun-point, on the spot. Rick studied her from top to toe. "Listen, I don't care. Honestly. I just want to be on my way and you can do whatever you want. " she stuttered, suddenly realizing what she might have done.

"No, we were the ones who burned that place to the ground. And if you saw 'em bring back a meal, you can guess what they were hopin' to do with us. And I would be glad to let you go, but how can we trust that you will not run back to them and give away our location?" Rick drawled in his southern accent, looking more and more stern by the minute.

"Did you not just hear me? They are cannibals, I'm not looking to re-join that. If you weren't holding a gun to my face, I would probably try to join your group, it get's lonely out here." Emily said in a as-a-matter-of-fact voice. She was not really itching to join another group of dangerous savages, but something about these men made her feel like they were in fact some of the good guys. Covered under layers of dirt and killing, of course.

"Honestly girl, we're not lookin' to let you go just yet. So you might not have a choice in that matter." The other man drawled, finally lowering his gun a bit. He must have reckoned that she was no match for the two of them, if it came down to that. "I thought that might be the case. I'm willing to stay, but I will not be treated as some random prisoner. I haven't done anything wrong, remember?" Emily said, crossing her arms over her chest. "And then, I'm free to go?" she continued, hoping for the right answer to come out of Rick's mouth.

"Yes, after we have tracked down those men and gotten rid of 'em once and for all, you are free to leave. But we will need your assistance in tracking them." Rick took a step towards her as he spoke, and then pointed at her hands and gestured for her to lift them up into the air. Emily frowned, and then figured that once again, she was left without a choice. So she lifted her arms up slowly, and then stared straight at Rick.

Rick started to pad her down, looking for any weapons. He grabbed her machete and gave it to the other man. After he was done looking for weapons, he rose to his feet and looked right at her. "How many walkers have you killed?" Emily felt a bit uncomfortable standing so close to him, she had not been this close to a person since what felt like forever. "Don't keep count, I just chop 'em." She answered, was no point in lying. Rick did not react at all, but continued: "How many people have you killed?"

A stone immedietly took place in her. She was not expecting that question. But, yet again, it felt like there was no point in lying. "One." she answered, her voice grim. "Why?" Rick asked, his piercing blue eyes staring directly into her own brown ones. "Because she was bitten. She still had hours to live, but I had to keep moving. So I killed her. Figured I would have to do it either way." Emily answered, sounding more indifferent than she felt.

Rick removed his gaze from her and looked at his partner instead. The other man shrugged and Rick then looked at her again. "We have set up a camp in that church over there. I understand that you have a problem with being treated as a prisoner, but you will be under watchful eyes. Don't try anythin', it's not worth it. There's a lot of us and only one of you. "

Emily did not answer, she only nodded. Rick had her turn around, and then grabbed a hold of her wrists. The men then urged her to move forwards, out of the shrubbery and into the sun. She saw a clear field, and a white church smack in the middle of it. The church was probably quite beautiful before the world went to hell, but now it looked more scary then anything else. People started to emerge from the church, looking straight at them. _It like high-school all over again_, she thought to herself.

"What's this? " A man asked, who looked like he was from Korea. Emily had studied there when she graduated high school, God, that seemed like a lifetime ago. She reckoned that he must be about the same age as her. He kept a protective arm around a brunette-woman who had a concerned look on her face. "What's your name?" Rick asked her, still keeping a hold of her wrists. "Emily." she answered sourly.

"This is Emily. She was in the same camp as Gareth an' his group. She left when she realized what they were, and she is going to help us find them and put an end to all of this." Rick explained to the group, who did not seem at all comforted by his words. "How can you be sure that she's not still with them?" A short-haired woman asked. "Does everyone miss the part with them being cannibals? Isn't that reason enough?" Emily muttered. This was going nowhere.

After some debating with his group, Rick led her past them and into the church. Once inside, he led her into one of the smaller rooms, which had nothing in it except for a chair and a rug. Once in there, he closed the door behind him and let go of her wrists. Emily immedietly brought them up to her chest and started to rub them as they were a bit sore from the tight grip. She turned around to face Rick, and then gave him a sour face.

"I know that this seems unfair, but I can't have you around my kids until I can trust you. We're not bad people, we've just had some mishaps happen in the past months, and we can't risk anything happening again." Rick explained. "No, you're right. It is unfair. I was being a good person, stopping to make sure that the whailing kid wasn't alone. And then you force me into some dispute that you have with a group of Hannibal Lectors, you're damn right that it's unfair. " Emily spat, looking straight at him. She had figured out by now that he must be the groups leader, and he had probably earned that it some way, but he did not scare her. She would not be scared of bullies, especially not in this world.

"Nothing is fair anymore. You would do well to remember that. " Ricks response was un-satisfying, it just made her more angry. "However, these people are my family. I won't let anything happen to 'em. And seeing as you are all alone, this might work in your favour too. " With that, he gave her a nod and walked out of the room, closing and locking the door. She had no way of getting out, the only window was sealed shut, and the door was not a good idea, even if she could pick the lock. Emily sat down on the hard wooden floor, and finally allowed herself to cry.

As per usual, reviews make me happy!


	3. Chapter 3

Rick's POV

Rick hated this. He hated that him and his group had been chased from the prison, he hated that he then led them into a trap, and he absolutely hated the fact that he had resorted to taking young women hostage. The old Rick, the pre-apocalypse version of him would never even have considered it. But that version of him had not seen the things that he had seen, or done the deeds that he was now guilty of. He did not regret his actions, but it was clear that it was shaping him into a different person.

The girl had been with them for a few days now. So far, they had no luck finding Gareth and his group, but in all honesty, it made Rick hope that they had been eaten or something along those lines. They hadn't been out in the real world for quite some time, so there was a good chance that they might be dead already. But, that possibility would stay in the back of his head until they had good reason to believe it. Rick wanted to move from the church, but with no way of knowing when they would find enough supplies and when the bus that conveniently enough was on the same property as the church would be fixed – he would not risk Carl or Judith in any way before everything was set.

Besides, he had no intention of running from their cannibalistic friends, he would keep his promise to Gareth. He would be the one to kill that little prick, he had earned that right. Rick was deep in his own thoughts, staring at a map and trying to figure out the next place to go, when Carl approached him with Judith on his hip. Rick glanced up, and then reached for his infant daughter. Carl handed her over to him, and Judith let out an 'ooou'-sound as she was in the arms of her father. The little girl started playing with his beard. Rick smiled and then looked up at his son.

"How are you, kid?" Carl shrugged, "I don't know. I was trying to go give Emily her lunch, but Rosita said that I can't go in there alone. She's not a monster, you know."

Rick sighed. "I know, son. Rosita just meant that we can't trust her yet. You remember what I told you, never let your guard down. " Carl rolled his eyes, but quickly straightened up when he met Rick's stern stare. "I'm just saying. Now, all of us have eaten, but I don't think anyone remembered to give her the food. Could you please go and give it to her?" Rick snickered under his breath and then rose to his feet, handing Judith over to Carl again. "Sure. It's very good of you to come to me. Sometimes I think you might be wiser' than me Carl. When did that happen?" Carl just smirked and walked off with Judith.

Rick walked into the church, instantly seeing the can of ravioli that was meant for Emily. He grabbed it and then threw a look at Michonne, which clearly said: 'Come on now' . Michonne looked apologetic. This was a hectic time for all of them, their mind-set was on something totally different than the hostage who was locked in a small room for most of the day. These days, other people than your own were just not as important.

Rick unlocked the door to the room that held their hostage, and then slauntered in to find Emily sitting on the floor, staring at the sealed window. Rick instantly felt a pang of guilt. He cleared his throat a bit, making her jump and turn her head to him. "You scared me." she stated, standing up. "Just bringing you some food. It's probably terrible, but, what food isn't nowadays?" he handed her the can, which had a plastic fork sticking out of it.

"Thanks. I used to like ravioli, but then again, that kind was served in a restaurant with plenty of wine to go with it. " Emily did not want to complain about the food, even though she was quite certain that pasta was not supposed to be gray. She sat down again on the floor, leaning her back on the wall behind her.

Rick closed the door behind him and took a few steps, sitting down next to her. "You know, I am sorry. I'll make sure that you are given your food on time. " Emily glanced at him with a wondering gaze, and then shrugged. "If you let me out, I could eat with you guys. I can help out, not just for hunting the cannibals-stuff. " Rick was not expecting her to say that, but at a closer thought, she could have taken the plastic fork in her hand at jabbed it at him. Instead, she was shuffling bad pasta into her mouth like there was no tomorrow.

"I don't know. I am happy that you are not tryin' to stab me with that fork, but I really don't know you. " Rick said, trying to look as apologetic as possible. "Well, the first time you brought me food I was seriously contemplating it, but I figured that stabbing you in the eye would be a waste of a pretty eye. But, let me ask you this, did you know any of these guys when you first joined them?" Rick was thrown off guard when she complimented his eyes.

It was weird, he was not used to women complimenting him. Before all of this, sure, there had been some women that had tried to flirt with him, but then he had always been upfront about the fact that he was married. Even now, he felt guilty because he actually did appreciate the fact that the woman sitting beside him was gorgeous, but he felt as if the wedding band on his finger was as important now as it was then. "You do have a point. We are going for a run to an old kindergarden in a few hours. Tag along, and if it goes well, we can discuss this further."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Fine sheriff. If that is what it takes, then sure. I can't stand being in this room anymore. " Rick stood up, stretching out his arm to her. "Well, come on then. You're to no use for us sittin' on your ass." The young woman quickly set down the empty can of ravioli and took his hand. When she rose to her feet, Rick was painfully aware of how close they were standing to eachother. She seemed to be as well, but made no effort to move either.

Rick looked down and stepped to the side, gesturing for her to follow him. He opened the door to the room and stepped out. Emily hesitated a bit in the doorway, but he quickly urged her to follow with a nod. She stepped out stood beside him. Rick noticed that nearly the entire group was there, staring at them. Carl seemed happy, bouncing his baby-sister on his hip. Everyone else seemed a bit concerned.

"We're letting the hostage roam free now?" Abraham scuffed, clearly doing everything in his power to undermine Rick's judgement as a leader. "She will come with us on our run today. Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves. " Rick stated. It became clear to the group that their leader had already made up his mind, because no-one else said anything.

Carol stood up, walking towards Rick and Emily. Rick had much respect for the short-haired woman, even though she had done some questionable things in the past, he had her to thank for his daughter's life. That was something he would never forget. "Come on, why don't we get you outside? I reckon that room doesn't let in much sunlight. " Carol smiled at Emily. The younger woman simply smiled back and said: "Thanks, that would be great." They walked down the main aisle of the church and stepped outside.

Rick was not sure if he had made the right call, only time would tell. But, for Emily's sake, he hoped that she made the right choices.


	4. Chapter 4

I have to hand out a big THANK YOU for the reviews, I really do love this story (which you can probably notice since I'm writing like cray-cray) and I have a bunch of stuff planned, so stay tuned! The Emily/Rick build-up will be a steady but gradual one. Neither of them are just going to start trusting eachother right away. I want to make it as 'realistic' – as realistic as it gets in this show, at least, but you get my point- as possible, and they both have issues with eachother and with themselves before they can think of starting something up.

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The sun was piercing through the sky, making the day the group had ahead of them long and tedious. Emily did not feel like complaining, after all, Rick had agreed to let her take some part of the group, and following them on a run would definitely fuel some trust, however small it might be. Emily's first impression of the group was good. Carol had been really nice to her, Emily got the feeling that the older woman knew something about being in her shoes. Glenn and Maggie, the couple she had noticed when she first got there were also nice. They were both going on the run with them, as was the man that had first held Emily at gun-point, whos name she had now learned to be Daryl. Apparently the run should not take long, Rick and Daryl had scoped the place out yesterday and deemed it to be quiet.

Everyone who was going on the run was busy preparing in the main room of the church. Emily sat on one of the benches, trying to retie the cloth that was on the handle of her machete. Suddenly she felt something tug at her jeans. She looked down and saw Judith, Rick's baby daughter on the floor, tugging on a hole in her pants. The little girl looked up and flashed Emily a grin that showed all of her four teeth. Emily smiled back, but was unsure of what to do. She did not feel like she had any business picking the baby up, that seemed too soon. She set down her machete to the side, out of reach to the small child. Luckily, she did not have to think about what to do next as Carl, Rick's son came to the rescue. He picked the baby up and smiled at Emily.

"She seems to like you. " Carl said, whilst trying to keep a hold of his squirming baby-sister.

"Yeah, babies tend to like me. I guess it's my charming personality." Emily answered, bringing a hand up to scratch the back of her head. Carl chuckled and continued:

"I hope you decide to stay with us, everyone here is cool. Abraham, Rosita and Eugene can have a bit of an attitude, but they're nice." Emily was a bit moved by this young mans words. He seemed to be really mature, but she guessed that he had not had much of a choice.

"I'm sure it will be fine, thanks kid." Emily smiled, and picked her machete up again. Carl said good bye and took his sister into the other room. She gazed at them as they left, smiling to herself. As she continued to try and adjust the cloth on her machete, she did not notice Rick walking up to her.

"I see Judy took a liking to ya'. "

Emily jumped a bit, and looked up at him. "I wasn't trying to pick her up or something. But she is precious." She knew how important Rick's kids were to him, she just wanted to assure him that she was not trying to overstep her bounds. She felt like she had to go a bit easy on the guy. She still wasn't sure if she trusted him or not, but as he had taken a chance on her, she felt as if she wanted to pay him the same sort of respect.

"No, it's fine. But I appreciate the thought. Are you all set to go?" Rick asked, looking at her machete. "Yeah, well, I will be after I get this damn cloth on." Emily muttered, cursing under her breath. She must look a bit stupid, not even being able to put on a damn cloth right.

"Want some help with that?" Rick asked and slid down on the bench next to her. "May I?" he continued, reaching for the machete. Emily handed it to him and watched as he retied it, even making it look neat. This guy was just full of surprises. "There you go." he said and offered the weapon back to her. " ' As good as new. I blame my clumsy hands on an old hand injury. My left hand gets all trembly when I try to use 'em both at the same time. Thanks." Emily even offered him a smile, which did not go un-noticed as Rick smirked back. "Yeah, well, we can't all be perfect. We're leaving in five. " Rick said and stood up, walking away to fetch his own weapon.

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Emily made her way outside, where Glenn and Maggie were already waiting for the rest of the group. Maggie offered her a smile and then said: "The walk won't take long, only like fifteen minutes or so." Emily smiled back "That's fine. What are we looking to get exactly?" she asked. "Formula for Judith, some diapers and basically anything that hasn't already been raided by our friendly priest." Glenn answered. Father Gabriel kept to himself mostly, Emily figured that he did not let the group live there by his own free will, but she did not dwell on that too much. She had enough troubles of her own. She was just about to answer Glenn when Rick and Daryl walked out, guns in hand.

"Alright, let's go then. " Daryl muttered, and they all started walking down a road that led from the church to the village. Emily did her best to keep up, this group was apparently used to wandering, but then again, so was she. She kept a steady pace, her eyes darting around for either the living dead or the living creeps, meaning Gareth and his group. Nobody really talked during their walk, Rick walked infront of her with Daryl, which gave Emily a perfect opportunity to gaze at him. He really was handsome. She had noticed the wedding ring on his finger, but knew that his wife was not there- which made her assume that she was most likely dead. And that it had not been that long, given that Judith seemed to be around 10 months old.

She did feel sort of guilty for eyeing a married man, but at the same time, there was no harm in looking. She was brought out of her thoughts by Maggie, who walked up next to her. " Well, this has been a couple of interestin' days, wouldn't you say?" Well, that was an understatement. Emily smirked and responded: "Yeah, definitely. " Maggie let out a chuckle, and put her hand on Emily's arm.

"It'll be fine. I know that this all seems hostile to you, but I do hope that this works out. We're running a bit low on people. We can be good at letting people in, but time has made us more cautious."

"I know. I can understand the caution, can't say in all honesty that it wouldn't be odd if you weren't." Emily shrugged. It was amazing how the group had gone from being very cautious to actually trying to encourage her to stay. Emily was not sure on that matter herself. She had made it this far by herself, and she was not comfortable with these people yet, only having spent a few days with them – and most of those days she had spent in a locked room by herself. However, the road did get lonely, and the people in the group were starting to grow on her.

As the road neared it's end, buildings were starting to appear. Emily was just about to say something when she heard a familiar noise. The gurgling of a walker, as the group liked to call them. She quickly turned her head and saw a decaying corpse making it's way towards them. Without flinching, she strode up to it, machete in hand and buried the blad deep in it's skull. The walker, who appeared to have been dead for quite some time, fell to the ground. Emily made sure that it was really dead this time, before turning around to face the group.

Rick gave her a nod before gesturing to them all to gather a bit closer to him, before starting to explain the plan. "Alright. So, we have the kindergarden just down the road to our left. Now, from what I can see, the street looks pretty empty. We move in fast, I want us to be back before nightfall. Daryl and I will go in first, then you all cover us good. One of us should stay outside and keep watch, are you up for that Glenn?" Glenn nodded in response to Rick, who nodded back and then continued; "Good, let's move."

They all hunched down and hurried down the street, eyes constantly darting around to see if they had any unwelcomed tag alongs. Emily gulped, it had been long since she had been anywhere that was this exposed. It seemed like Rick and the others were used to it, and before she knew it, they had reached their destination. Rick and Daryl checked to see if the door was locked, which it was not. Both men held up their guns and walked in. Emily and Maggie followed suit, leaving Glenn outside.

The place seemed quiet at first, but as they spread out, Rick and Daryl on one side and Emily and Maggie on the other, they started to hear some rustling in some of the rooms. Emily and Maggie found their way into the kitchen, they both immedietly started to empty the cupboards. Emily found a cabinet filled with powdered formula and some bottles. She figured that all they could find was of use, so she started to fill her backpack with as much as it could hold.

Maggie, who stood on the other end of the kitchen, picking out some canned goods that had not yet been raided, suddenly gasped as two walkers made their way towards them. Emily dropped her backpack and went for the living corpses with her blade in hand. Maggie did the same with her knife, quickly stabbing one of the walkers straight through the temple. It fell to the ground, but unfortunately hit Emily whilst it fell, which made her fall to the ground as well. The other walker slumped down after her, snapping it's teeth and groaning. Emily tried to hold it off as best as she could, but the walker was relatively new, and therefor a bit harder to hold off.

The walker was inches from her face when it suddenly got pierced by Maggie's knife. Emily let out a sigh of relief, and pushed the body off of her. Maggie took her hand and helped her up and then said: "I'm sorry! My knife got stuck in the other walker, I couldn't get it out."

"It's fine, it's fine. " Emily huffed out, out of breath by her close call. They didn't hear any more gurgling near the kitchen, so they continued stuffing their bags. Rick and Daryl came back, filled bags on their backs, but with a worried look on their faces.

"We need to bail, now. There's a whole bunch of 'em in the back area. " Daryl sneered, obviously stressed. Maggie and Emily threw their bags over their backs and started to head out. As soon as they got out, they saw Glenn busy with a walker. He launched at it with an axe, and took it's head clean off.

"Glenn, come on. We're leaving, there are too many inside." Rick shouted, and they all started running up the street to get to the main road again. Walkers began to stumble out of the kindergarden, apparently drawn to their noise, and smell.

When they finally arrived at the church, the sun was beginning to go down. They had not encountered many walkers on their way, it was like they weren't drawn to the church in some weird way. After they entered the building, father Gabriel quickly locked the doors for the night, to make sure that they didn't get any visitors.

Emily put down her bag and started to take out it's content on a nearby table. Before she could finish, Rick walked up to her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. Emily nodded and walked with him to the room where he had previously kept her.

"Now, I talked to Maggie. She said that you two ran into two walkers, and that it was a pretty close call for you."

"Yeah, it was. Bu-" Emily started before Rick cut her off.

"But she also said that it went fine. I can see that you got my daughter plenty of formula, which I thank you for. Clearly you can hold your own with walkers, and I do think that you can be a useful person to have in our group. I think you should stay with us."

Emily was a bit shocked. She would've thought that it would take a bit more of convincing for Rick to allow her to stay. She debated in her mind what she should do, and spoke with a bit of hesitation: "I want to stay. For now. But I also want to be free to leave when I please. I've gotten by fine on my own, and there's a lot of responsibilities that comes with belonging to a group. But I do feel somewhat safe with you all, so yeah. "

"Thats fine. As long as you help us with Gareth, you are free to do whatever you want after that. "Rick said, extending his hand for her to shake. "Welcome, then." Emily smirked and shook his hand, lingering her fingers around his for a moment and then let it go. Rick kept his eyes on hers, and she felt a chill go down her spine. This could get interesting real quick.


	5. Chapter 5

Once again, thank you for the kind words, I really do appreciate it!

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The waiting was making Emily anxious. She knew that Gareth and his group would make their move at some point, but what happened tonight was beyond anything she had ever imagined that they would do. Bob, a man in her newly found group was missing. Now, they were collected enough to realize that the hunters had something to do with it. Bob had seemed distant after a run that Rick and some of the other people in the group had done with father Gabriel, but as Emily did not know the man, she wouldn't know if it was unusual for him or if it was nothing out of the ordinary.

She glanced over at Rick, he looked angry, almost bewildered. She knew that there was only one way that this was going to end, in death. Emily was not used to seeing people fight people like this, she had been on her own for so long that she had no idea that ordinary human beings were beginning to slaughter eachother. As if there wasn't enough death caused by walkers. But, that was not the biggest problem at hand. The fact that Bob had been snatched just outside of the church, made it clear that Gareth and his bunch of creeps knew exactly where they had set camp. And that was a huge cause of concern. There were children in here. Children that Emily knew, if they did not win the fight, would probably be served as dinner. Hell, they all would be served as dinner if they didn't win.

Carol and Maggie were comforting Sasha, whom Emily had figured out to be in a romantic relationship with Bob. She felt sorry for the crying woman. The last relationship that Emily had been in ended a long time before all hell broke loose, but she still wondered at times if her ex had somehow found a way to survive. They had ended things on good terms, and even if they hadn't, she would never wish death on him. To be honest, she had never been a relationship-kind of gal. She had always appreciated being single, and being able to do anything that she wanted to. And nowadays, it just seemed like grief. Starting to care for someone who could be snatched away in the most gruesome way at any time.

"Alright, round up people. We're gonna' have to think of a plan. Fast." Rick sighed, and everyone neared him, each person looking as tired and worried as Emily herself was.

"It's just a matter of time before they come here. They know where we are, maybe we should make a run for it." Carol said, and Eugene, the scientist nodded in agreement to what she said.

"I don't think there's any time for that. Bob's been gone for a little over three hours. We need to think of a defense instead." Emily responded. Rick looked at her and then sighed again.

"She's right. I won't let those bastards anywhere near my kids, but we can't go around constantly havin' them on our tails." Rick kept his gaze on Emily, then continued; "We'll all hide out in the room where Judy's bassinet is. We'll have some lurkers hiding out in the dark spots of the church. Corners and such. The element of surprise is all we have."

Everyone agreed to their leader's plan. Most of the group began to hide out in the main hall, with the exception of Tyreese, Judith and Carl, who hid in a closed and locked room. Just in case things went south. Emily started to make her way towards a bench, thinking that she would hunch down and thus be out of sight for when the creeps entered the church. Just as she was about to hunch down, Rick grabbed her arm. "Here. You're gonna need a proper weapon." Emily turned around and saw that he was handing her a gun. "Thanks. Do you think that this will work?" Rick shrugged.

"I hope so. It's all we got."

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Emily thought that her anxiousness was at it's peak, but when she heard rustling coming from outside, it reached a whole other level. Gareth and his group came in, and she heard them whispering to each other. She felt the stench that was coming off of them when they passed her.

The rest was a blur.

Rick killed nearly all of them, keeping his promise to Gareth. Emily finished off the girl that was with them, and the others were taken care of as well. When all of them were dead, Emily turned her head and realized that Rick was still chopping away at Gareth's corpse. She had never seen someone so savage, it was clear that Rick wanted to pay Gareth back for everything that he had caused. She really couldn't blame Rick, but at the same time it made her realize that there was a dark side to him that she had yet to comprehend.

When Rick finally stopped, there was blood everywhere and nearly everyone ran over to Bob, who was missing a leg. This made Emily tremble. The monstrosities that had occurred tonight was something that she would never forget. She looked down on her hands and saw blood from the girl that she had killed. Now, she liked to consider herself tough. But the blood made terrible memories come rushing back, and before she knew it, a single tear ran down her cheek. Her hands trembled and she looked over to Rick, who met her gaze. He was covered in blood himself, but did not seem as bothered by it. However, when he saw her trembling body, he looked concerned.

Emily immedietly stiffened up when he walked over to her. She was not one for showing weakness, she liked to put up a front like she could handle anything. But when Rick said "What do you say we go get cleaned up?" she could only nod in response.

He led her out into the yard. They kept water-bottles in the school bus that they were currently renovating. Rick reached inside and grabbed two bottles. He gestured to her to sit down in the grass, which she did. He sat down beside her and opened a bottle. "Here' , give me your hands." He said in a low voice. Emily hesitated a bit before finally reaching her hands over to him. He gently placed his hand over hers and set them down in his lap.

Emily was suddenly very aware of where her hands were, which oddly, giving the situation, made her a bit flustered. ' _Honestly, Em. Get a grip.' _She thought.

Rick began to pour water over her hands, whilst rubbing them gently with his free hand. "I know today was awful. I would like to promise you that somethin' like that won't happen again, but I know that I can't make that promise. "

Emily sighed. "We're not supposed to be killing each other off. It's such a waste of human life. Even though Gareth and his group were terrible people, it should never get easier killing a live, human being." her reply sounded much more judgemental than she had intended. In all honesty, it was gruesome to see Rick shoot Gareth's finger off, and then kill him without even flinching. Whilst she was starting to trust him, the man that he had become in there scared her a bit. Who was he really? What had happened to him to make him this way?

"It's not easy. But when it comes to the lives of my children, there's nothin' that I wouldn't do." Rick huffed and stopped cleaning her hands. She could see that he was beginning to get annoyed.

"I realize that. I'm not trying to lecture you, what I said came out wrong. " Emily apologized, withdrawing her now clean hands. She was too damn tired to fight.

"You can think poorly of me all you want, it doesn't matter." Rick snapped. God, this conversation was not going the way that she wanted it to.

"I don't think poorly of you, Rick. Really. But don't you dare snap at me like that. I killed someone too tonight. Don't forget that." Shit. Now she was getting angry.

Rick stared at her for what felt like forever, before he stood up and stormed into the church again. Emily continued to sit down in the grass, burying her head in her hands. What was with this man? Emily knew that she had probably hurt him, but as it turns out, Rick was as defensive as she was. She refused to feel bad about what she had said, even though she probably could've formulated herself a bit differently. She let out another sigh before standing up and heading into the church.

She was immedietly greeted by Carol, who held a mop in her hands. "I was able to find this in a broom closet. I think we need to start cleaning up."

Emily nodded "Yeah, that sounds about right. It needs to be cleaned, this isn't how a church is supposed to look." Carol offered her a warm smile.

"Do you want to help me or are you up for carrying the bodies outside?"

"I'll help clear the bodies, then I'll be glad to help you." Emily was really in no mood for either, but she wanted to be of assistance. She didn't want to piss off any more people then she already had.

She walked up to Glenn, who was grabbing a hold of the girl she had killed by the shoulders. Emily picked up the dead woman's feet and offered Glenn a smile. He returned it, and together they carried the woman out from the church to the back yard.

"Do we bury them? Burn them?" Emily asked whilst propping down the womans feet on the ground.

"I say we wrap them up in garbage bags, there are some inside. It's too dark to start burning them now, it will have to wait until tomorrow."

Together they helped Daryl and Tyreese carry out the rest of the bodies and made sure that none of the bodies would turn. After they had wrapped all of the bodies up tightly in garbage bags, they all went back inside to continue cleaning up. Emily kept her promise and help Carol mop up the blood. There were some stains on the carpet that they weren't able to get off, but when they were done, it almost looked like the entire thing had never happened.

"Try to get some sleep, and we will do the rest in the morning." Carol said, and Emily was glad to oblige. She laid down on one of the benches, using her backpack as a pillow. She longed for a proper bed, the bench was not helping her sleep.

As she finally began to drift off, she thought of Rick. She would have to talk with him and try to resolve things. But for now, all she wanted was to sleep. So she did, drifting off into a un-peaceful slumber.


	6. Chapter 6

More and more people are finding their way over here, which I love! Also, LOVE you guys for the reviews, honestly, it means a lot! And remember lovelies, reviews are gold! Also, until now, the story has pretty much followed the show, however, now I will start pulling the story in my own direction. I have some good ideas, so stay tuned!

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A few days had gone by since Emily and Rick's fight. It had been long since Emily had felt so awkward around a person. She wanted to talk to him, but each time they were alone, Rick made no attempts to chat with her. Feeling avoided was nothing that she enjoyed, and it made her more stubborn as well.

She reckoned that their talk was way overdue, so she decided that after dinner, she would make an attempt. One of them had to be the bigger person, and as she was new in the group, she reckoned that would have to be her. However, after they had eaten, Rick immedietly took off with Daryl to scope out if any of the cars that were abandoned nearby were functioning. They needed to begin searching for somewhere else to set camp. The church was too small for all of them. Tyreese wanted to get Sasha out of there since the place held so many bad memories for her.

Apparently, Daryl had been to a mansion not very far from their current position. Carol had told Emily that Daryl had been with Maggie's little sister after their prison had been overrun. Where that girl was now, Carol left out and Emily knew well enough not to ask. The mansion had apparently been run over by walkers as well, but they reckoned it could be worth checking out. The herd could have passed on by now, otherwise, they would have to make an estimate of how many there were, and if they could handle it.

Rick and Daryl had been gone for awhile, and it was starting to get dark outside. Emily offered to take watch, taking one of the rifles whilst she made her way outside. Sitting down on the porch, she looked at the star-packed sky above her. She set down the rifle beside her and then drew a hand through her brown hair. She remembered before all of this had occurred, she was the sort of person who enjoyed treating herself to a salon-visit quite often. Being pampered was something that she definitely missed. Now, she considered herself clean if she got to bathe twice every other week.

Bein around these people had definitely brought out a side of her that she hadn't seen for awhile, and she was not sure if it was something that she wanted back either – she was actually starting to care. Being with her sister and brother-in-law had not done her many favours. She got to see two of the best people that she knew being eaten, like in a horror-flick. Since then, she had watched out for herself. Only tagging along with people when she deemed it to be absolutely necessary. But the truth was that by being with this close-knit group, she was starting to realize that caring, and building a life for yourself in this shithole of a world was far better than just surviving. The saying that you should seize the day, because it might be your last was more true now then ever before.

It felt like she had sat on the porch for ages when she heard mumbling voices nearby. Instantly, she was alert. When she picked up on who the voices belonged to, she settled down. Finally, Rick and Daryl were home. They walked up to the church, obviously not with a car, so the run they went on must have been a bust.

"D'ya need someone to trade watch with ya'? " Daryl asked when he spotted her. Emily just shook her head and smiled faintly.

"No, I'm good for a few more hours."

"Fine. I'm gonna' go crash." And with that, Daryl walked past her and into the church, shutting the door behind him.

Rick must have realized that this left him alone with her, because he simply gave her a curt nod and began to walk up the stairs to go inside as well.

"Wait." Emily said, grabbing his arm as he walked by. "Can I have a word with you?"

Rick stopped in his tracks, looking down on her. He seemed a bit hesitant, but then huffed and said: "Fine." . He took a seat next to her, looking like he deliberately tried to put as much space between them as possible. Which annoyed Emily, but she decided to pick her battles with more care.

"Alright. I just wanted to talk to you about our little dispute a couple of days ago. I know you've been avoiding me, and I do agree, I should have chosen my words a bit more carefully. But I'm not going to apologize for being upset."

"I just don't appreciate being made out to be some sort of monster. You have no idea what we've been through." Rick crossed him arms over his chest, his voice revealing how tired he was.

" I told you then and there that I don't think any less of you. I killed someone too. I am sorry, Rick. " Emily really just wanted this all to be over. For some reason, it really bugged her that Rick of all people, was mad at her. It gnawed at her, and then it gnawed some more that it bothered her as much as it did.

"Well, I accept your apology. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, and for that, I am sorry." Rick looked at her with that piercing gaze of his, it made her a bit nervous.

"Let's just both agree that we're idiots and be done with it. Life is too short to fight." Emily gave him a smirk, and extended her hand towards him. "Let's shake on it?"

Rick let out a small chuckle and took her hand with his own, shaking it. "Oh, is that a smile I see Mr. Grimes? I never thought I would see the day" Emily mocked, shaking his hand briskly.

"Oh, you would be surprised. Someone even called me funny once."

"Somehow I doubt that."

Emily chuckled along with Rick, and didn't even notice that they still held each other's hands. Although, now that she had, she could see that Rick did as well. But the thing was that he made no effort to move it. Emily tore her gaze from their hands, up to his face and met his blue eyes with her own. None of them said a thing. Then, before she could even comprehend what she was doing, she leaned forward and crashed her lips against his.

He didn't respond. '_Oh, God. I'm such an asshole. What am I doing? How would I even begin to save this situation?' _her mind was racing. She pulled her head back, holding her face a few inches from Ricks. She honestly felt like the biggest moron on the face of the earth.

"Look, Rick. I -" but she could not finish her sentence as Rick suddenly closed the space between them. The kiss was pure fire. Emily could feel his beard tickling her neck, and his hands touch her cheeks, cupping her face. She entwined her hands in the locks on his head as they kissed. Emily could feel Rick's tongue begging for entrance, which she gladly allowed. He leaned her back so that she was laying down, him on top of her. Their mouths never left the other's and the fact that somebody could walk out at any given minute and see their leader and the new girl in a very unorthodox position seemed to be the last thing on their minds.

Emily was so into the kiss that when Rick suddenly jolted back, she just laid there, being very confused. Rick stood up, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have" he muttered, looking down on the ground.

"No, i-it's okay. If I recall correctly, I was sort of the instigator."

"I'm just gonna' go inside, I'll see you tomorrow." and before she knew it, he walked by her. She could hear the door shut behind her, and then there was silence. Had that really just happened? Emily lifted her fingers to touch her bruised lips. It had.

Emily was very deep into her racing thoughts, so deep that she didn't hear someone walk out. When a hand touched her shoulder, she jolted. Thinking it was Rick, she flicked her head back, but was met by Carol instead. "Are you alright Emily? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"No, I'm fine." Emily hastily responded. "Is it time for a switch?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have been out an hour or two ago, but Daryl said that you and Rick were talking so I figured I could rest for a little while longer."

"Yeah sure, no, it's all good. I'm just going to go inside then." Emily quickly stood up, leaving the rifle on the porch for Carol.

"You do that. Are you sure you're okay?" Carol asked, most likely trying to put two and two together.

"I'm fine. Really. I'll see you later."

As Emily walked inside, she grew anxious. What had really happened? Or most importantly, what was going to happen now that it had? As she walked down the aisle to get to her designated bench, she saw Rick lying down on one of them. He usually slept in one of the rooms with Judith and Carl, but Emily figured that someone else was in there and that Rick didn't want to wake the baby up. He looked like he was asleep, so Emily just walked past him. As she laid down on 'her' bench, she stared into the ceiling for awhile before finally drifting off, the feeling of his lips on her's repeating in her head.

Aaaand there it is, the first kiss! Dam, dam, daaaaa


	7. Chapter 7

Hello lovelies! Halloween is upon us, so I'm thinking that an action-packed chapter would be in order! I was happy to see that you all seemed to like the kiss. I was quite nervous to post the chapter, but I felt that it was necessary for them both to take it to the next level. Now, I do have a question for y'all! Would you like to see some more chapters from Rick's point of view? I'm a bit conflicted myself. Since this is my first walking dead fic, I wouldn't want to do something completely out of character for him, since I do have a lot of respect for the show. But, let me know what you think!

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The day was finally here. Emily, along with Maggie, Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese and of course, Rick were going to go to the mansion that Daryl had talked about– to see if they could take the walkers that roamed there. The building would be perfect for the group, but if it could work remained to be seen. They packed some heavy artillery, and after digesting a hearty breakfast, they were on their way. Rosita and Abraham had opted to stay back at the church, to help keep watch incase anything would happen whilst they were away. Emily was nervous, she did not really know what to expect, but going by what Daryl had said about the place, it seemed worth it.

The trip was long and boring. They barely ran into any walkers on their way, which could either be a good or a bad sign. When they approached a big field after walking for what felt like forever, they saw a lonesome walker trying to drag itself forward, both of it's legs were missing. Michonne wrinkled her brows at the sight, and decided to put it out of it's misery by stomping her foot straight through it's skull. Apparently the walker had been turned a long time ago, as the skull broke swiftly by the pressure. Now it was Emily's turn to wrinkle her brows, the smell was putrid.

"We're getting close. There's not a walker in sight except for draggy over there, so that's a good sign." Daryl pointed out. They all agreed to take a few minutes to rest up before they headed in for the mansion. Emily had not talked much to Rick since their moment on the porch, which was a good three days ago. His black t-shirt hung just right over his lean body. The jacket he had was very dirty and worn, she had to admit, but it did in some odd way work in his favour. His sweaty locks seemed to curl up even more with the moisture that his sweat provided and when he dragged his hand through it it just seemed to get messier. To be honest, he looked amazing.

She herself felt like shit. Carol had lent her a white tank top, it was a nice change from her shirt that she had worn upon her arrival. She only had another top in her backpack, but she noticed that it had been drenched in formula-powder that had gotten cosy with an old cantine that apparently had been filled with some un-boiled water and then leaked out into her bag. After some swearing, she and Carol had burst out into laughter over the misfortunate accident. Emily felt like out of all the people in the group, Carol was the one that she had gotten closest to. She was glad in a way that the woman was not going on the trip with them. Emily had never seen her in a fight, although she was sure that Carol could hold her own, she felt a bit more at ease knowing that Carol was at the church.

"So, what's the plan then?" Glenn asked, propping down on the ground.

"We take them out. Going room by room, we can see if it's too much to handle. We should have two people on the outside, but otherwise we're going to need everyone on deck." Rick stated, having clearly thought this through. Emily met his gaze and nodded.

"I'll stay outside with Maggie." Glenn responded, and glanced to his wife to see if she was okay with that. Maggie agreed and with that, the plan was set. Emily would be in denial if she tried to convince herself that she wasn't a bit scared, but she was sure that they could handle whatever was thrown at them.

They all rose to their feet. It was time. After they had walked for another fifteen minutes, a big mansion appeared before them. It really was huge, Daryl had not exaggerated in his description of the place. A big cementary was placed infront of the place, where they found three walkers. They quickly took them out with the help of Daryl's crossbow and Michonne's sword. As they crept closer to the house, Emily found herself to be next to Rick. She drew comfort from his presence, even though they did not talk.

When they got to the property, there was dead silence. This seemed to mean that most of the walkers that had been there had passed on. Not to be tricked by the first impression, Emily walked up to the door. After receiving an approving look from Rick, she silently counted to three before opening the front door. Guns at the ready, they entered the building. Instantly moving to her left, Emily found herself in the kitchen. There were knocked over cola bottles on the floor, along with a few crashed jars of peanutbutter. Other than that, it was empty. She moved along, entering another room. Darting her eyes around the area, she whistled to let the others know that it was clear. Just as she turned around, something took a hold of her back pack and dragged her back. With a yelp, she was smashed into the wall behind her.

Something sharp pressed into her shoulder, making her let out a loud groan of pain. Had she been bitten? She tried to take in her surroundings desperately, but instead of seeing a walker, she saw a bewildered looking man. His eyes were huge, staring at her with fury in his eyes. Before she could raise her gun, the man lunged at her. They both fell to the floor. A wrestling-match ensued between them both. Being at a clear disadvantage because of her size, physique and the fact that whatever had pressed into her shoulder dug deeper into her flesh when she fell to the floor, the man quickly disarmed her and closed his hands around her neck, strangling her.

Emily gasped for air, clawing at the mans hands and then clawed at the floor, trying to reach some sort of weapon. Finally, she felt something hard in her right hand, and wasted no time hitting the man in the head with it. He fell off of her, and she scrambled off the floor. Her neck was throbbing for the pressure, she was sure that she would have some nasty bruises to show for it. She saw her gun laying on the floor, and without hesitation she picked it up and aimed it at the man. He seemed to be indifferent, blood trickling down his face from her hit.

She was just about to say something when he once again, with a vicious growl lunged at her. Pulling the trigger of her gun, she hit him straight in the chest. The man fell to the floor instantly, dead. In the same moment, Rick ran through the kitchen and entered the room.

"What happened?" He exclaimed, looking from the dead man to Emily.

"I- I don't know. He wasn't a walker, but he attacked me an-" before she could finish her sentence, her legs caved in, and she tumbled to her knees. She looked to her side, and saw a lot of blood on her top. Rick rushed to her and knelt beside her. Emily reached behind her shoulder and felt a rather big chop of wood pointing out of her. When she brought her hand back, it was covered in blood.

"We need to get that out. " Rick looked around the room as he spoke, and then headed over to the window. Tearing down a curtain, he took out his knife and slit the fabric. He brought back a piece of it, and tied it tightly around Emily's shoulder, adding pressure so the bleeding would slow down.

"Just do it." Emily gritted between her teeth. Rick sat down infront of her and drew her into an embrace. Emily hold on to the hem of his jacket tightly, and then shrieked as Rick pulled the wood out. Instantly, he threw it to the side and instead used his hand to add pressure to her wound.

Her shriek must have been loud enough for the others to hear, as Daryl and Michonne quickly entered the room.

"What the hell is goin' on?" Daryl snapped. Emily could feel herself getting more and more faint, and she began to rest against Rick's strong embrace.

"Emily, stay awake. The bleeding is slowing down, but you're gonna' have to stay with us. " Rick warned, tightening his hold around her.

"Lay her down. I have some hooch' in my pack, we're gonna' need to steralize that wound." Daryl said and reached into his pack and pulled out a jar that contained a clear liquid. In any other situation, Emily would have found it amusing that he kept hooch in his pack, but at the moment, she did not feel the urge to laugh. She could feel Rick pulling out from his embrace, and gently laid her down on her side.

"Sorry girl, but this is gonna' hurt like hell." Daryl muttered and opened the jar, dipping another piece of the curtain that Rick handed to him into the liquid. Handing the cloth back to Rick, Emily followed the movements with her eyes but was not really comprehending what was happening. So, when Rick pressed the hooch-drenched cloth on her wound, she instantly shrieked of pain. Her eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of her eye sockets. Rick let go of the cloth after a full minute, and then took yet another piece of the curtain to drape around her wound like a bandage.

"Well, the bleeding's stopped. " he told her, but Emily barely heard a word of what he said as everything around her turned dark. She could feel herself passing out, and then, everything was quiet.

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When she awoke, she was laying in a king-sized bed with her shirt off and an improvised sling around her, to keep her arm in a good position. She looked around and saw Maggie sitting on the side of her.

"Good, you're awake. You had us worried, you know." the brunette said, showing a faint smile.

"What happened? Where am I?" Emily asked, everything was slowly coming back to her in bits and pieces.

"You're in bed. You got a pretty bad puncture wound on your shoulder and some horrible bruises on your neck. Everyone else is out scouting for walkers. "

"Is the house cleared then? Except for that guy?"

"Yeah. Well, almost. Michonne found a family of five upstairs. A mom and four kids. They were all dead. The guy that did this to you must've been the father, and I reckon he's the one the offed the rest of them. Other then that, there was a good ten walkers locked into a room, but they're taken care of. " Maggie replied. So, the guy that she met must have gotten to the mansion, done a half-assed job at taking care of the remaining walkers and then killed his own family. She knew that a lot of people went insane after the outbreak, Gareth and his group had been a good example of that, but this was gruesome.

Emily attempted to sit, using her elbows as assistance, but quickly slumped down again after a shooting pain in her shoulder reminded her of her wound.

"Be careful. I found an emergency-kit, and managed to stitch your wound up. Won't want to break those. " Maggie looked at her with a meaningful look, and Emily decided to obey. Not like there were many options. Lifting her un-wounded arm, she felt her neck with her fingers and winced. This guy had really done a number on her.

"So, when are we going for the others?" she asked and propped her hand down to rest on her stomach.

"First off, you're not going anywhere. And me, Glenn and Rick are going just as soon as they get back. " Maggie replied and rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Does the house seem un-touched? Is there any food or are we going to have to go for a run?" Emily was full of questions, anything to keep her mind off the pain she felt.

"The family had not touched much. We found some gnawed rodent bones, and a couple of empty cans. There's actually quite a lot in the main pantry, even Daryl was surprised to find it. Clearly him and Bethy had not looked around well enough." Beth must be Maggie's little sister. Emily could see small tears well up in the other woman's eyes. Shit.

"I'm so sorry Maggie. I know that Daryl was with her, but I don't know much else." Emily was not great at comforting people, but she extended her good hand and grabbed Maggie's with it.

"It's okay. She's just.. Gone. It's horrible not knowing where she is, or if she's alive. Daryl did everything he could, he ran after the car that took her for miles. "

"From what I've heard, she seems like a lovely girl. If she's out there, you will find each other in some way." Emily had always wondered if there had been something between Daryl and the girl, Beth. From what she gathered, she could not be sure, but she had been given the impression that the girl had meant a lot for Daryl.

"That's very nice of you to say. I hope you're right. By the way, Rick seemed to be quite concerned for you, I'm glad to see that y'alls relationship is improving." Oh, if she only knew.

"Yeah, he's.. Alright." Emily really was a terrible liar, and her flustered face tended to be a dead give-away.

Maggie smirked. "I can see that. I don't want to pry, but I feel like I should mention that he has been up here about five times to check on you. "

"Really? Well, that's awfully nice of him." Emily raised a brow and shook her head slightly.

" It sure is. Now, you rest. I'll go and see if I can find you something to eat." Maggie said, apparently deciding to leave well enough alone. Emily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It hurt, making her think that she may have cracked a rib. Whilst she was banged up, she was glad that the house seemed sort of safe. They could stay here for a while. And though she couldn't tell what the future had in store, she knew one thing for sure. She wouldn't have to sleep on that damn bench ever again.


	8. Chapter 8

Hola! Now, this is the last pre-written chapter that I have on hold, and you are looking at a minor wait for the next chapter. Hope you all like it, and as always, remember to review guys and gals!

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Emily awaited anxiously for Rick, Maggie and Glenn to return with the rest of their group. She had been lying in bed for hours, with the exception of being helped to sit by Maggie, so that she could eat and go to the bathroom. The canned soup she had gulped down had actually been quite tasty, which had been a nice surprise. But now, she was cold and needed to get a shirt on, as she was still only in her bra. She knew that was not going to be an easy task, especially not after having been confirmed by Maggie that one of her ribs must have a crack in it.

With much effort she managed to get up in a sitting position, and then stood up shakily, cursing profanities that would have made even a sailor uncomfortable. She noticed a dresser on the other side of the large room, deciding to try out her luck – which had been non-existant up until now- she stumbled towards it slowly. Opening one of the drawers, she found a collection of t-shirts which seemed to have belonged to a man. She grabbed a simple white one and then slowly made her way back to the bed.

As she sat down, she was now faced with the task of actually putting it on. Luckily, she did not have to try her hand at doing it alone as someone knocked on the door. Not really bothered by who it was, she said: "Come in." . The door opened and in walked Carol. Emily was really happy to see her, and instantly got a faint smile on her face.

"You look like hell." Carol stated with raised brows.

"Yeah, I would say 'you should see the other guy' but that would be sort of morbid and sad. Did you all get here okay?"

"Yeah, we had a few distractions on the way, but we all made it here fine. Father Gabriel stayed in the church, we tried to convince him that there was nothing there for him anymore, but he had made up his mind." This was sad news to Emily. She hadn't spoken much to the priest, but it was sad that he chose to stay in that church instead of trying out his luck with them. He had done some horrible things, but he had always been kind to them.

"It's his choice. Sad though." Emily shrugged. There was really nothing more to say.

"You need some help with that?" Carol asked, motioning with her eyes to the t-shirt on Emily's lap.

"Yeah, that would be good. I'm sort of a cripple right now." Carol walked towards her and sat down on the bed beside her.

"I think we need to get the sling off first. Let me know if it hurts too much." Carol sounded a bit more hesitant than she would have liked, but it had to be done. Carol reached her hands over Emily and untied the knot that held the sling together behind her neck. As she took it away, Emily instantly felt a sting of pain in her shoulder. She grimaced, but gestured with her other hand for Carol to keep going.

Carol grabbed the shirt and gently put Emily's wounded arm through the correct hole. The process was long and it hurt, but finally the shirt was on. "You're lucky that this is about a hundred sizes too big for you, sure made it easier." Carol muttered and started putting the sling back in place. Once it was all over, the older woman stood up and went through her pockets. She pulled out a headband and smiled to Emily.

"Want me to put your hair up?"

Emily was moved by Carol's care and nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice. "

She moved more to the side so Carol would reach better. It was nice having someone run their fingers through her hair. Her eldest sister had always put her hair up for her when they were both living at home. It grew to become a therapeutic thing for her, as her sister had always comforted her when she was sad by braiding her hair. Carol put her hair up in a ponytail, and then moved to stand infront of her.

"Are you up for coming out? Michonne found some winebottles down in the basement."

"Yeah, if there's wine, I'm definitely down." Emily stood up carefully, and with the support of Carol, who grabbed her good arm, she made her way out of the room. The house really was beautiful, she instantly felt like she didn't belong there, it was hard to grasp that she would actually be staying there. She heard voices from down-stairs, and instantly smirked a little when she heard laughter.

The women very slowly and gently made their way down a grand staircase and then moved into a large room that seemed to be a lounge or a living was a bar, and it was even clean. That must have been Maggie's work. As they walked into the room, all eyes turned to them.

"Geez, you all look like you've seen a ghost." Emily joked awkwardly, with a crooked smirk on her face. She probably looked about as good as she felt, hence the looks of pity that she was receiving. Her eyes moved across the room, searching for one person in particular. And there, she found him. Sitting on the floor with a wine glass in hand, was Rick.

"Come sit down sweetie. " Maggie said, scooting over on the couch that she was sitting on. Carol and Emily made their way to it and propped down.

Glenn went to the bar and grabbed two glasses, filling them with wine. He walked over to Emily, and handed her and Carol each of the glasses. "You look like someone who needs a lot of this."

Emily chuckled and took the glass. "You are absolutely right. Thanks."

She could feel Rick's eyes on her, and as she took a sip, she met his gaze. She was touched by what he had done, and that he had looked up on her. She still wasn't sure where their moment on the porch had left them, but at least it did not seem to be hostile.

"Well, if you haven't gotten your ass beat', you're just not one of us. " Daryl smirked.

"Well, cheers to that then!" Emily answered and raised her glass. Everyone else laughed and raised their glasses. "To getting our asses kicked every once in a while!" she continued.

"Cheers!"

The wine kept flowing throughout the night. It was nice to be able to laugh and enjoy herself for once. Even Carl tasted some wine, under the watchful eyes of Rick, but decided that if there was soda in the house- that's what he would stick with. Carol excused herself to go to the bathroom, and Carl brought his sister over to the couch and sat down.

"What happened?" He asked her whilst Judith was playing on his lap with the hem of her brother's shirt.

"I didn't watch my back as good as I should have, kid." Emily replied, taking the last sip of her wine, and set the glass gently down on the floor beside her.

"My dad always tells me to watch my back."

"He is right. You never know who could be lurking. But the house is cleared now, so you're good." Emily offered the boy a smile. Carl looked to be around fourteen, so he was clearly growing up now.

"Yeah, I know. I like it here, it even has a kid's room, so Judith can play." Carl grinned, looking down on his sister.

Judith however was trying to make her way over to Emily. Clearly she was interested in the sling on Emily's arm. Emily scooched over a bit and gestured for Carl to let the baby sit on the couch between them.

"She really does like you, even with the bruises and stuff."

"Yeah, like I said, babies like me. She can probably feel that I'm still a kid on the inside." Emily joked, stroking the small child on the head with her free hand, which was next to Judith. She consciously kept the baby away from her other, not wanting her to tug on the sling.

"How old are you anyway? " Carl asked.

"I'm twenty-six, actually. So I'm old enough to boss you around, kid." Emily joked, and playfully nudged the boys arm with her fist.

"Yeah, right. " Carl huffed, smirking.

"Don't get all cocky. Just you wait. Soon I'll be up and running again, and then I'll give you a run for your money."

"You're on."

Emily kept chatting with Carl for awhile, before Judith started to smell. "Uh, I think she needs a new diaper. I'll be back." Carl grimaced and picked his sister up. Emily watched them leave the room. He really was a great kid.

Emily could feel the wine in her system. The old her would have probably felt a bit embarassed at what a light-weight she had become, but alcohol was not really coming in regularly anymore. All the others felt like it was time to call it a night, which she agreed whole-heartedly to. She began to stand up slowly, but the wine seemed to make it much harder. She then felt a strong arm grab her own and helped her to get on her feet. She looked up and saw Rick standing beside her.

"Need some help?" he asked her, bringing back a smile that seemed to have been on her face the entire night.

"Yeah, sure. "

Slowly they began to make their way into the main hallway. Emily's stomach began to growl when she spotted the kitchen. Rick must have heard it, because he let out a chuckle and said:

"Let's get you something to eat."

"No, I'm good really. We should probably try and count the food that we have first. " She did not feel like hogging their supplies. Although she had not eaten anything today besides the soup that Maggie gave her, her growling stomach was a clear reminder of that.

"I think we're good. Let me get you upstairs and I'll go down and fix you somethin'." Rick replied.

They got her safely upstairs and in 'her' room quicker than Emily herself would have expected, once she was in and Rick had run down to ger her some food, she went through the dresser again to find some pants that were more comfortable than her black jeans. She found a pair of shorts that were probably going to be equally as large as the t-shirt, but she did not really care.

She managed to get her pants off and the shorts on with a lot of hussle before she sat down on the bed, just as Rick walked in and shut the door behind him. He held a plate in his hand, when he came closer she saw that there was some canned ham and pickled eggs on it. Not something that she would normally find appetizing, but now it looked like a delicacy. He sat down next to her and handed her the plate, which she gladly accepted.

She shoved an egg into her mouth, clearly not showing any case of table manner-improvements. "Glad to see your appetite hasn't changed." Rick teased as she shoved another egg in her mouth.

"Hell hasn't frozen over just yet. " Emily replied and slowed down, wanting the food to last a bit longer.

"You know, I was a bit worried. We didn't know if you had any internal wounds."

"I appreciate that. Thank you for everything you did, Rick." she felt like it was important that she told him just how much she appreciated his deed.

"It's fine. I do feel bad over what happened on the porch. It was rude of me." Emily was a bit stunned that he actually brought their incident on the porch up. She thought that she would have to drag the conversation out of him. It was nice to see a softer side to Rick. Emily finished her piece of ham before she replied, it gave her time to think of what to say.

"It's all good. I think we were both a bit out of it." She definitely would not mind being 'out of it again' , but she did not expect that to happen again. Rick had show cased that quite clearly.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm just not used to kissin' other women than my wife. " Rick replied. Emily had never heard him mention his wife before, and she was honestly surprised that he was telling her all of this.

"You don't have to explain yourself. It just happened, it's not like it's going to happen again, right?" Emily replied and set down her now empty plate on the floor, not really sure what she wanted him to say next.

" Probably not the best idea. " Rick stated, but kept an intense look on her. Emily's stomach fluttered, and not with hunger this time. Atleast not _that _type of hunger.

"Yeah... Probably not." she mumbled back, and kept her eyes on him. Then, she felt a hand on her lap. She put her free hand on Rick's, and stroked his hand with her index finger. The tension in the room felt like it was electrical, and when she looked at him, she saw the same intense look in his eyes. He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, which took her a bit off guard. She returned the kiss, and smiled as his beard tickled her face.

They stayed like this for a while, slowly kissing. Emily then broke the kiss and said: "Why don't we lay down for a while? My back is killing me. " Rick looked a bit hesitant, but stood up so she could lie down on the bed. He walked to the other side of it and did the same, looking insanely awkward.

"I never said you could stop kissing me. " Emily remarked, looking to his side. She couldn't lie on the side as this would make her add pressure to her wound, but she was hoping that Rick would get the idea and move closer. He seemed to get her point, and turned closer to her, propping up on his elbow so that he wouldn't add any weight on her as he leaned in to kiss her again. The kiss intensified, as much as it could at least.

Emily was not particularly happy about how confined she was by her injuries, otherwise this situation would include something else entirely if it was up to her. Rick propped up on his knees and swung over her so that he was on his knees and elbows, this provided some easier kissing, but a lot more temptation. Emily settled for running her hand up Rick's thigh, making the man stop reciprocating her kisses and stiffen up. Before she could make a sarcastic remark of how he needed to loosen up, he started to kiss her again, clearly not minding the hand much.

They kept it going for a good while before Rick finally pulled back. "I think we need to stop before this gets out of hand." He muttered, placing a few final kisses on her mouth and chest.

"Agreed." Emily answered, out of breath.

Rick hopped off her onto the floor and grabbed her empty plate. "I'll see you tomorrow, Em." No one had called her 'Em' for a good while, but it felt good coming from him.

"See you tomorrow sheriff." she replied with a cheeky tone in her voice. Her walking temptation just smirked and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

Hello dearies! Halloween has come and gone. I myself had a good weekend with friends. Now, I hope you all like this chapter. I can see that this story has gotten some new followers, which I love!

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A few eventless days went by in the mansion, the entire group was still getting used to actually having a house to live in. It was odd to think of a room as your own, and to have a somewhat secure place to live in. Some people were working hard at cutting down nearby trees and slowly, a fence was beginning to form around the house. They still kept watch, working around the clock to make the house as safe as possible. Walkers did come, but so far there had been no herds, which was a relief. Maggie had told Emily of the prison that they had lived in, and the double fence that they had been inside of. Realistically, they would never get their hands on anything that advanced, but anything was better than nothing.

Emily herself felt as if she was beginning to let her guard down. She had refused to make herself at home at first, partly because she still had no energy to move around excessively – but also because she did not want to get horribly dissapointed if they had to leave. She realized that they were probably not going to be able to live there forever, something always seemed to go wrong in the end. But, if there was something that she had learned, it was that there was no point in stressing over the future. The present was all that mattered.

She had begun to regain some of her strength. The sling was no longer necessary, although her shoulder still hurt quite regularly, she was regaining movement of her arm. Her ribs were still sore, but there was not much that she could do about it other then focusing on taking deep breaths to ensure that her lung would not collapse. She was very glad that she had Maggie by her side. Apparently her father had been a veterinarian before all of this had happened, and he had some knowledge of the human anatomy as well, which he had passed on to Maggie.

Emily could not wait until she could make better use of herself, at the moment she was stuck with laundry and cooking meals for everyone. This was of no favour to the group either, since her cooking abilities had not improved much. In the past, she had rarely cooked for herself, she had mostly ordered take-away. God, she missed chinese food.

She was trying to find something in the pantry that she could use for dinner. She refused to serve canned soup again, so she was searching bottom to top for something else. Luckily for them, the kitchen had a gas stove so it was still useable. She remembered that Daryl had caught a few hares recently, there had to be at least two left. So, she grabbed a couple of cans that she thought contained mushrooms and brought them into the kitchen. She located the hares, and found that there was infact two left. She was especially glad that Daryl had skinned them, so she would not have to do that. It was strange how she on one hand could bash previously living humans heads in, but the thought of skinning a hare was repulsive.

She lit the stove and placed a big pot on it. After that, she quickly chopped up the hare-meat and threw it in the pot and let it fry a bit before she added the chopped mushrooms. She added some of the pre-boiled water that they kept in jugs under the sink, in the pot so that the meat would cook properly. Opening the cupboards, she looked around for some spices or something that would give taste to the meal. She located some salt and a few other spices. She smelled all of them and added the ones that she thought would taste nice along with everything else.

As she stirred around in the pot, Maggie walked in the room. "Hey. Something smells... Edible." The woman greeted, walking up behind Emily to glance down in the pot. " Hey, don't sound _too_ enthused now. I think this could be my best stew yet." Emily smirked. She really was a horrible cook, but everyone tried to eat her food without making any grimaces. Or, tried at least. Rick always kept a straight face, but he always shoved his food in. He was the same as her in that aspect, they had begun to see food as pure fuel. Some of the others had more problems with her stews and soups.

"I'm just glad you're not serving us those pickled eggs again. Now, I was just going to ask when dinner would be ready, and if you need some help plating up."

"It should be done now, and yes please. I think we still have some paper plates left."

Together, the women slopped up stew on some paper plates and then Maggie made her way outside to call on everyone for dinner. Emily turned off the stove and watched as Daryl made his way into the room and grabbed himself a plate and a plastic spoon.

"Y'know, when I caught those hares I imagined a nice roast or somethin'. Not some damn stew." he muttered which made Emily turn around and glare at him jokingly. Daryl was not a huge fan of her cooking, it had become sort of a internal joke between the two of them.

"You bring me some potatoes and a cook book on how to make it, and I'll make you a damn roast. " Daryl replied by scooping up some hare and mushrooms on his spoon and put it in his mouth. The archer simply raised his brows at the taste and hopped up on the counter to eat.

"That bad, huh?" Emily asked, feeling a bit guilty.

"It's.. Interestin'."

Emily was just about to make a snide remark on how he could cook his own dinner in the future when Rick, Michonne and a few other people made their way in the kitchen. Everyone grabbed a plate. Rick went to hop on the counter beside Emily and started to shove food in his mouth. Even he seemed to think the food was less than appetizing, as he paused his shoveling to make a slight grimace. Everyone else seemed to think the same as him as they made the exact same face when they tasted it.

"Oh, come on! Is it really that bad?" Emily exclaimed, and grabbed herself a plate. She daringly put a full spoon of the strange looking food in her mouth and started to chew. It really did taste like shit. "Okay, perhaps not my best work."

"I miss the canned soups a bit." Glenn remarked which earned him a slap on the arm by his wife.

"I think we can find something else for you to do." Rick said softly, looking to his side at Emily who just smirked at him. They probably kept their gaze on each other for a little too long, because when Emily looked at the others instead, all eyes were on them. Maggie had a smile on her face that said absolutely too much, and she did not hesitate to help Emily clean up when everyone else returned to building the fence.

"Alright, I do feel like I should tell you something. I really need to get it off my chest." Emily sighed, as the women were clearing off the plates and tossing the rest of the unedible stew in a garbage bag.

"I had a feeling this was coming. You have my full attention." Maggie replied and stopped what she was doing so that she could listen better.

"Right. Well, Rick and I.. We've kissed. More then once, and not on the innocent side. " Emily spoke quietly after making sure that no-one else was listening in on their conversation. It felt nice to get it off her chest, finally.

"I figured as much. His little visit in your room the other night did not go by unnoticed, he was in there for an hour at least." Maggie smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh. God, did Carl notice?"

"No, he was sound asleep, you're good. So, where does that leave the two of you?"

Emily was a bit thrown off by the question. She had not really begun to consider that, it was all very confusing. "I.. Don't know, really. The first time we kissed was back at the church, it got pretty intense, but then he suddenly jolted back and apologized. But he was the one to initiate it when he was in my room. "

"Well, I'm guessing that it has much to do with Lori, his wife. She died giving birth to Judith. I think Rick hasn't been with another woman in that way since before he and Lori got together, and that was a long time ago. " It was the first time Emily had heard the name of Rick's wife. So, she was right after all. Emily suddenly felt a clump of guilt form in her stomach. Did this mean that she was some sort of home wrecker?

"That's awful. I didn't know what had happened to his wife, I just assumed."

"Yeah, you know, it hasn't been that long since she died. I think he feels a bit guilty, to be honest. But, Rick will have to tell you the rest – it feels wrong to gossip. How do you feel about all of this then?" Maggie asked. Emily appreciated that she wanted to keep the Lori subject as a discussion between Rick and Emily. In all honesty, she felt a bit uncomfortable talking about all of this.

"I really don't know. I mean, we're definitely not a thing. It's just kissing and both of us being confused I guess. " Emily was not one for showing too many feelings. And with Rick, she was not really ready to take a chance just yet.

"I reckon it's more then that though. I've seen the way you both look at each other. He has become a lot harsher as of late, I think we all have, but he softens up a bit when you're around. It's nice to see." Maggie put a reassuring hand on Emily's arm and squeezed lightly. Emily herself just felt incredibly flustered.

"You know, I'm not sure that I want something more then what we're doing right now. I'm not really the relationship type." She really wasn't. In her entire adult life, Emily had had two serious relationships. One lasted a year, the other two years. She had been the one to end things both times, she had never felt free in a relationship. Although, her and Rick's kiss on the porch had been more passionate then anything she had ever encountered before. Rick had kids though, which wasn't really a problem, but Emily was not nearly mature enough to handle two kids like that. Carl was growing up, sure, but Judith was still so tiny. She wouldn't want to mess them up.

"Sure. I wouldn't think about it too much though. I wasn't exactly hoping for a relationship when Glenn came along, but sometimes monogamy just gets you." Maggie winked, and continued clearing up.

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Later that day, Emily decided it was time to switch rooms. She really did not need that big bed by herself now that she was beginning to feel a bit better. Maggie and Glenn had insisted that they were fine in their room, but Emily felt that they deserved a big room upstairs, the room that Emily had been staying in was a bit more secluded than the rest of the rooms in the house. So, after some convincing, she cleared out her stuff, along with a few t-shirts from the dresser and made her way downstairs.

Clearly, she had gone a bit overboard with how much she could handle carrying in her still weakened state. Her backpack slipped from her hands as she made her way down the staircase and tumbled down the stairs. It made a huge noise, and she was quite sure that she heard something break. She cursed loudly and stomped down the stairs in protest.

Before she could grab the backpack, Rick swooped in and grabbed it for her. "You probably shouldn't carry that much all by yourself. You¨'re not healed just yet."

"Probably not. It would be nice though to be able to do something, for a change. " Emily sneered. It annoyed her that she was still a bit of a cripple. She was not used to having to rely on other people to do things for her.

"Alright, calm down. I'll just help you in with this. I will even let you take credit for it." Rick winked, not bothered by her sneer. Together they carried her things in her new room, which was shared with Carol. Her new bed was a big bigger then a single bed usually was, but it was a big difference from her old one. She felt even more guilty when she thought of the fact that Maggie and Glenn had slept there together.

She put her things nearby the bed and motioned for Rick to put her backpack there as well. Carol was not in the room right now, so for the first time in a couple of days, they were alone with each other. Emily sat down on her new bed, and patted on the mattress, so that Rick would follow her lead. He was wearing a grey t-shirt from the dresser in her previous room, and his usual black jeans. What caught her attention the most was the wedding ring around his finger. After the conversation she had with Maggie earlier in the day, it was hard not to take more notice of it.

Rick sat down beside her and ran a hand through his newly washed hair. They might not have a working shower in the house, but they had more time on their hands now to actually wash off. They had even found a few shampoo bottles and soap bars, which was highly appreciated. Rick glanced out the door to make sure that nobody was going to interrupt them, before he leaned towards her and placed a kiss on her neck. It enticed her to turn her head and capture his lips with her own.

Emily just wanted to forget about the conversation she had with Maggie, and she especially wanted to push away the feelings of guilt that she had over Rick's wife. So, she began to run her hand up Rick's thigh, and sneaked her hand under his shirt to touch the bare skin of his back. To her surprise, Rick did not break the kiss like he had before when things started to get a bit intense. Perhaps he had the same hidden agenda that she had. He just turned more towards her and did the same. The feeling of Ricks hand on her lean stomach made a chill go up her spine. Suddenly, Rick broke the kiss. Emily immedietly felt dissapointed, thinking that this was the end of it. Then she looked into his eyes, and saw that they were a lot darker then they used to be. He stood up and reached out his hand to her. "Come on."

She took his hand and let him lead her to what had used to be a laundry room. Once inside, he turned to lock the door and then faced her again. He leaned in for another kiss, and before she knew it, clothes were being thrown everywhere. She thought she had been able to appreciate Rick's looks before, but without a shirt, he was nearly too good to look at. He gently backed her up against a wall, without putting any pressure on her wound, and let his hands roam over her body. When he began to place kisses on her bare neck, Emily felt as if she had to say something: "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" she just needed confirmation from him that he was fully aware of the step that they were taking.

Rick paused his hands and looked up at her. "I'm sure. I want this. Do you?" Emily just nodded, and then, there was no turning back.

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Emily and Rick were both panting as they laid in each others arms when they were done. They both said nothing, there was not much to say. Whilst it had been perfect in some ways, Emily felt as if it had come very sudden. She was not sure that it had been a great idea, she couldn't tell what Rick thought as he kept quiet. Emily was laying in the crook of his arm, and breathed in his smell. It was a mix of soap, sweat and just.. Rick. He had a distinctive smell to him, she could not put her finger on it, but it was very attractive.

"Are you good?" she mumbled. They had taken the necessary precautions. Emily liked babies, but also knew what had happened to Lori, and she was not ready to have a child; nor was she ready to worry about being pregnant either. How Rick had gotten a hold of it was beyond her, but she was glad that he had. She knew that they would have done it either way, so she was glad that it was safe, at least.

"I'm good. How 'bout you?" Rick answered, in a not so convincing tone of voice.

"Yeah, I am. But, I have to ask, where does this lead us?" she knew that the question was going to come up at some point, she just did not think that she would be the one asking it.

"I don't know. I know that I can't keep away from you. But I also know that I haven't been with anyone besides my wife in a very long time. I'm just not used to being with someone, or even touchin' someone in that way."

"I understand that it's hard. I don't know much about what happened to your wife, and I can't even begin to comprehend how hard it must have been on you and Carl. " Emily tried to be as fair and supportive as she could, but she wasn't sure of long how she should press this subject. Rick was a wild cannon in that way.

"Me and Lori weren't good even before she died. But I can never forgive myself for how I treated her. My best friend from before all of this took care of Lori and Carl whilst I was.. away, when the world went to shit he looked after them. Lori and him started sleeping together, and when I came back, she was either already pregnant, or she became pregnant when she and I... Long story short, there was a huge dispute, he tried to kill me and I ended up having to kill him. Lori never forgave herself for what happened, and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever forgave her either. We had problems with a herd at the prison. And then, she died. And I wasn't there." Emily was not expecting this sort of talk to happen. She really needed to give Rick more credit for opening up. In all fairness, she had never really opened up to him.

"I'm sure she knew that you loved her, Rick."

"I'm not sure. However, you and I should figure somethin' out. I don't think I'm ready to start somethin' serious just yet."

"Well, I'm not either. If you want to keep this a secret for now, I'm all for that. I should mention though that the others aren't blind you know. Maggie had already figured out what was going on. If we're gonna' keep it a secret, we have to be more discrete." Emily did not want her and Rick to start some relationship that they wouldn't follow through on. She had just joined this group, and if things went straight to hell between them, she was very certain that she would be the one to leave.

"I figured that much. I would say that it's none of their business, but I have to think of the entire group before I act. I just find it hard to act reasonable when you're involved." Rick muttered. I was possibly the sweetest thing he had ever said to her.

"I feel the same way. I just want to make sure that I'm not some piece of ass for you." Emily said, before considering what she was saying. Ouch. She could see Rick beginning to look annoyed, what was it with her and her damn 'foot in the mouth'-disease? Emily sat up and grabbed her bra and t-shirt that were nearby.

"Is that really what you think of me? If we had been in the normal world, I would've acted a whole lot different. But it's not, and I might have let you in, but I want to savour this for myself for a bit before it all gets questioned and difficult." Rick snapped, and swung himself on his feet so that he could start collecting his clothes.

"Rick, I just meant that before _this_, I wasn't sure where it was going. But now that we have talked, it's a whole other thing. I want what you want. But I also want to keep it between us for now." Emily replied. Ricks expression softened, and after he had pulled on his underwear and pants, he extended an arm for her to grab. She took his hand and very gently rose to her feet.

"It'll be alright, Emily. We just need to keep our heads cool and take it in our own pace. Not everything has to be so damn hard." She couldn't agree more. She leaned forward and kissed him gently. The question that remained was thus- could he really be right? Or was this turning out to be more trouble than it was worth?


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys! Now, I wanted to give a BIG shout-out to one of my constant reviewers, and that is **Emma Kellog**! Emma is very keen on giving insightful praise and comments, and darling, it's sooo appreciated! So keep it coming guys, I'm loving every bit of it! Muah!

Ricks POV

A few days had gone by, and Rick had seen Emily almost every night. It was like they couldn't get enough of each other, and Rick had no desire to stop either. He knew that the group suspected that there was something between them, but he was glad that it was kept under wraps for now. It had been a while now since Lori passed, but just seeing Carl and Judith every day was a constant reminder of his late wife.

Rick had not been particularly good to Lori before she died. Everything that had happened with Shane had made their relationship so much worse. Rick knew very well that their relationship had not been great since before the apocalypse, and if they had been in the old world, they would probably have gotten a divorce. But, when he miraculously found them again, a new flame had begun to burn between them again.

Emily was everything that Lori had never been, and it was both good and bad. Lori had been extremely supportive of Rick, and followed him blindly. Rick realized that to some extent, that had been out of guilt. However, it had also annoyed him. He had wanted her to have her own opinion, he knew very well that this was not the fifties – and he also knew that Lori did not agree with many of Rick's opinions, but she had always supported him regardless of this. That was something that Emily would never do. She was a bit of a wild card. Rick never knew exactly where he had her, and given that she was over ten years younger than he himself was, he got the feeling that he was way too old to be with someone like her.

In the old days, even if him and Lori had gotten a divorce- Rick would never even think of approaching Emily. She seemed so far out of his league, and he often wondered exactly what she saw in him. He couldn't help wondering what exactly he saw in her either. She never hesitated when it came to voicing her opinion, and this made them argue more than necessary.

In a way, their relationship was often tiring, but at the same time, it was also the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. Since Lori died, his only focus had been his kids and his group, but when Emily came along, life was suddenly exciting again. In the days, he longed for getting to hold her and whenever he saw her with one of the available men in the group he felt extremely jealous. He wanted everyone to know that she was his, and only his.

Occupied with thoughts of her, Rick was keeping watch by the cemetery. They had been able to nearly finish their fence. Walkers usually came along in groups of two or three, but it was nothing that they couldn't handle. Suddenly, he saw two figures that were stumbling towards him, what caught his interest was the fact that they seemed to hold guns in their hands which immedietly made him think that they were still living.

Rick instantly raised his rifle, and when they came closer he could see that one of them was male and the other was a woman, whom appeared to be injured. When the man caught sight of Rick's raised weapon, he exclaimed: "Woah, man, we're not looking for trouble. " the man moved to drop his gun to the ground and urged his female companion to do the same. Rick had been through enough shit in the past couple of months to let his guard down, and sneered back:

"No sudden movements! Put your hands where I can see 'em!"

The group must have seen what was going on as Daryl and Abraham appeared beside him, weapons at the ready. "Do as he says, asshole!" Daryl snapped at the man.

"Please, man. My sister is hurt, we need help." the man pleaded as both he and his sister raised their arms over their heads. They were both fair-skinned and blonde. The man looked to be around thirty, and the woman seemed to be around twenty something years old.

"Yeah, well, we ain't lettin' you in. By the looks of it, you've been on the road, and then you understand why." Rick explained sternly. He knew very well that he seemed heartless to these people, and had he not just been through hell and back, he probably would have aided them. However, they were just starting to cope with what had happened at terminus. He was not about to let anything compromise his group again. He was just about to say something more when he heard Emily's voice: "Oh my God, Tommy?"

Rick was stunned as he turned around and saw Emily making her way towards them in a hurry. She was clenching her fractured ribs as she walked, and he kept his rifle raised as she made her way towards the strange man and engulfed him in a hug. Rick looked at Daryl and Abraham, who seemed to be just as confused as he was.

"Emily, I can't believe it, you're alive!" Tommy exclaimed, and they both laughed in surprise. Rick, Daryl and Abraham kept their guns at the ready, and said nothing as they observed Emily and the strangers chat. Emily hugged the woman as well and then turned around to Rick. "Guys, they are okay. Tommy and I went to the same high school, I've known him and Louise for years. " Rick motioned to Daryl and Abraham to lower their weapons, and did the same himself.

"God, Louise, what happened? " Emily asked, frowning as she saw the woman's leg, which was covered in blood.

"One of those.. Things, came at us. I fell and my knee got busted. We were just asking to rest up, you seem like you've got a some what safe place. But your asshole friends are not having any of it." Rick raised a brow at the strange woman's words. If she wanted to rest up in their camp, this was certainly not the best way to go about it. Emily shot Rick an apologetic look and then turned to Louise.

"They're just careful. Try a softer approach Lo'. " Emily replied sternly.

"I'm sorry for my sister, she obviously doesn't know when to shut up. " Tommy apologized, shooting an annoyed look at his sister.

"I'm willing to let you rest up, but then, I expect you to be on your way. " Rick ignored the look he was getting from Emily. He did not appreciate being spoken to in such a manner, and they had no room for expanding their group.

"That's fine. We're trying to get back to our group, so we'll be out of here in a week. " Tommy replied, and smiled at Rick.

Emily assisted her friends to the mansion. Rick, Daryl and Abraham walked behind them after collecting the strangers weapons. Rick was not ready to let up just yet, and the sight of Tommy's arm around Emily's waist annoyed him more than he would like to admit.

He glanced at Daryl who had obviously seen Rick's intense stare at Emily and Tommy, and was now smirking in a way that made Rick a bit flustered. Once Emily had gotten her friends on the porch of the house, she turned around and walked towards Rick.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked. He knew where this was going. He simply nodded and said, "Yeah." . He followed her until they were so far away that they could speak privately.

"I know you don't trust them, but I really do hope you'll let them stay until Louise is better. They're both hot heads, but they're fine. Really."

"I said that they can stay for a week, and I'll keep that promise. " Rick replied indifferently. He was definitely not okay with it, and if the strangers had not turned out to be old friends of Emily's, he would not have allowed them to stay at all.

"Thank you. I'll make sure that they behave, they will pull their own weight, I promise." Emily's words were not settling him at all. He did not trust easily, and if these strangers made any signs of hostility, they would be out on their asses.

"They can stay in the living room. I know you think I'm being an asshole, but the group comes first." Rick expressed in a determined tone. Emily did not seem pleased with his answer, but did not argue. Instead, she inched closer to him and dicretely entwined her fingers in his. Rick wanted nothing more than to kiss her, but decided against it as all eyes were probably on them. He offered her a crooked smile, and squeezed her fingers lightly before letting go. He walked back to the rest of the group and allowed Emily to help her friends in so that she could properly clean Louise's wound. Rick opted to stay outside with Daryl, the both of them making their way towards the cemetery again to keep watch.

"You know, if you are tryin' to hide this thing you've got with Emily, you're doin' a crap job at it." Daryl suddenly commented. Rick was not sure if he should deny it, but figured that there was no point to it.

"That obvious, huh?" He smirked, and ran a hand through his beard.

"We all know. The both of you aren't exactly invisible, always makin' eyes at each other. I'm not gonna' start some damn girly talk with you, but if y'all want to be together, then just do it. "

"I would have to talk with Carl first. I doubt he would like it." Rick shrugged. His son and daughter were his main priority, and if Carl disapproved, than he would have to stop seeing Emily. The boy had just lost his mother, Rick would not be surprised if Carl found it to be horrible.

"He'll get over it. Lil' ass-kicker seems to like her, and Carl's a big boy. He knows that you loved Lori." Daryl was not usually this talkative, so Rick assumed that this was something that he had put some thought into.

"I'm not even sure if she wants somethin' more than what we have. She's unpredictable, half of the time I'm wonderin' what the hell we are doing. "

"Sure she does. It's not like y'all are getting' married, you need to stop being so noble and shit. " Daryl replied, raising a brow at Rick.

Later that day, they were all – with the exception of Abraham and Rosita who were on watch duty- sitting down for dinner. Emily had cooked up yet another soup. Rick was used to just shoveling his food in, so the odd taste did not stop him from downing his bowl in a hurry. Everyone else seemed to be more skeptical. It would be an understatement to say that almost the entire group couldn't wait for Emily to get well enough to do other work around the house, Rick had to admit that she was not the best cook around. They were all sitting in the living room and Rick sat on the floor with Judith in his lap. After he had finished his dinner, he took to feeding Judith her formula.

Although he was busy feeding his daughter, Rick couldn't help but to sneak glances at Emily and Tommy, who were sitting across the room from him. Honestly, he couldn't wait for Tommy and Louise to move on from their camp. He knew that he was acting like a child, but the heart wants what it wants.

"Well, Em. I gotta' say, your cooking is about as good as I remember it. You remember that time at Lauren's when you brought your homemade sushi? " Tommy remarked and laughed as Emily swatted his arm.

"Oh, shush. I still don't think it was that bad, you're such a liar." Emily chuckled. Seeing her laugh with the other man made Rick even more annoyed. To try and end their conversation, he cleared his throat and announced:

"We need to go on a supply run. I figured that there must be some sort of store nearby, we're runnin' low on food."

"Well, actually, I think there's a small town a few miles from here. I could show you." Tommy answered, smiling lightly at Rick.

Daryl, who seemed to be just as annoyed by the stranger as Rick was, muttered in response: "How 'bout you just show us the directions on a map, and we'll take it from there?"

"Whatever floats your boat man, I was just offering." Tommy shrugged.

"I think you would do best in stayin' here with your sister. I'd rather it was just my group going. You understand." Rick said in a stern tone of voice. After they had decided on who was going to go on the run, they all cleared out. Carl took his sister to play, and Rick stood up, getting ready to head out himself when Tommy approached him.

"Have you got something going on with Em?" Rick had to smirk at the nerve of this guy. Obviously he knew that the other man he technically done nothing wrong, but he could not bring himself to be polite either.

"I hardly think that's any of your business." Rick replied and stared intensly at Tommy.

"Probably not, but you're not denying it so I'll take that as a yes. You should know that I am going to ask her to join us. Some other people in my group are old friends of hers, she should be with her own." Rick was stunned. He clenched his fists as he tried his absolute hardest not to lash out on the guy.

"That's her choice. If she wants to leave, I'm not gonna' stop her." He replied, probably not sounding as indifferent as he would have liked. The other man just smirked and walked away. Emily had always said that she might not stay with the group forever. But the thought of her leaving made Rick panic. He couldn't stop her, but all this made him realize that it was time for him to confess what he really wanted from their relationship, if he wanted to have an honest chance at getting her to stay.


	11. Chapter 11

_Why am I so emotional?  
>No, it's not a good look, gain some self-control<br>And deep down I know this never works  
>But you can lay with me so it doesn't hurt <em>

The scissor snapped lightly as he cut his beard. Rick had been unable to find a razor, he figured that if he was going to try and charm a stubborn woman enough to stay with him, he should look presentable. He managed to cut his beard down to about half a centimeter before he gave up. He decided against attempting to cut his hair, but he did make sure to wash it and run some old hair gel that he had found through his locks to make them look a bit more presentable and slicked back.

He hurried in the laundry room to see if he could locate some clean clothes. He had managed to get some stains off of his usual pair of black jeans, and he exchanged his dirty t-shirt for a dark brown button up shirt. After he felt both clean and mildly satisfied, it was time for the finishing touch. Rick raised his left hand and looked at the wedding band around his finger. It was time to take it off. It felt incredibly odd, but as he pried the ring off of his finger, he felt a bit more at ease. He placed the ring inside of his back pocket.

He saw the tan lines on his finger from the ring, it served as a small reminder of how he had been fortunate enough to be able to wear that ring for so long. But, as he faced the possibility of a new chapter in his life, the ring did not fit. He walked out of the laundry room, and immedietly faced his son. He was holding his sister in his hands, the little girl instantly raised her hands for Rick when she spotted him. He took the baby from Carl's arms and then said:

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Carl simply nodded and replied "Yeah sure, dad. " Rick placed a hand on his son's back and walked with both of his children in the empty play room that Judith liked to play in. He sat down on the floor and gestured for Carl to close the door. The young boy did, and then went to sit down beside his father. Judith squirmed out of Rick's hold and crawled on the floor in search of something to play with.

"You know, I remember the day that I found you and your mother. I was set on looking for you, but I had no way of knowin' if I would ever get to see you again. So, when I did, I realized that I must be the luckiest man on the planet." Rick propped himself up a bit to get the ring from his pocket, and then sat down again.

Carl looked at the ring in Rick's hand and then said: "You took your ring off."

"Yes, I did. I wanted to ask you if you would hold on to it for me?"

"Sure. But why can't you?" Here it comes. Rick sighed and smiled faintly to his son. Carl had gotten so big. However, he had a feeling that this would not go down well.

"Because I can't. Carl, I hope that you know just how much I loved your mother. But the thing is, that I've found someone. It's Emily." Rick figured that it was better to simply rip the band aid clean off.

Carl said nothing for a minute or two, he simply took the ring from his father's hand and placed it in the pocket of his jacket.

"She can't replace mom."

"I doubt she would ever try. No one will ever replace your mom, Carl."

"I don't want you to be alone. And I like Emily. It would be good for Judy to have someone that could be a mom. Are you sure she likes you though? " Carl wondered, which made Rick chuckle in relief. This conversation was going much better than he had expected.

"I'm pretty sure, well, I hope she likes me enough to stay at least. I guess you know that those new folks are her friends, right?"

"Yeah, I figured. I don't really like them." Carl pointed out, and Rick could not help but to agree.

"They are going to offer her to go with them, Emily has a few more friends in their camp. And I want her to stay with me- us. " Rick explained, watching as Carl started to grin.

"Is that why you shaved? I want her to stay, so you do what you have to, dad." Rick had to embrace his son in a hug. His son never seized to amaze him with his wisdom. Rick stood up and said:

"I'll try. Thank you for being okay with this. I'll be back later." He watched both of his children before he stepped out of the room to find the subject of his desire. He stepped outside and saw her standing with Carol and Maggie, probably attemtpting to check if the soil was good enough to grow food in. He took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"Makin' any progress ladies?" he asked. The three women looked a bit stunned to see him, he had nearly forgotten about his change of attire.

"Look who's all cleaned up! " Carol said with a grin and then continued, "Yeah, we should be able to grow some vegetables and potatoes in here, but we would have to start planting something now if we want something before winter."

Rick could feel Emily's gaze on him as he stood beside her. He turned to face her, and then asked:

"Could I have a word?"

"Sure, Rick."

He walked with her for a bit, thinking of what to say that would make this as smooth as possible. Realizing that nothing would ever be 'smooth' with them, he stopped and put his hands on her shoulders. Without any hesitation, he leaned forward and kissed her, knowing that everyone that was outside – and that was nearly the entire group- could see them. At first he got no response, he figured that Emily was probably in shock that he had just kissed her infront of everyone. After a few minutes, however, he could feel her respond to his kiss. In a way, the kiss was symbolic. He did not feel the need to say anything else.

When they broke their kiss, Rick turned to look around, and saw that all eyes were on them. Carol and Maggie looked pleased, Daryl just smirked and shook his head and Glenn just gawked at them. Then, he turned his eyes to the person that he hoped would be okay with what he had just done. Emily looked a bit stunned, but a small smile was on her lips.

"I guess that blows our entire idea of playing it cool, Mr. Grimes."

"I think I'm a bit too old to play cool, darlin'." his response evoked a laughter from her, and she leaned forward to kiss him again. He felt like such a cliché, but this meant that they were out in the open. Things still had a possibility of going his way. Before, he had been determined to keep away from women. After what he had gone through with Lori, he thought that his only chance of intimacy was gone forever.

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><p>Emily's POV<p>

After dinner, Emily had offered to take watch for three hours. She figured that she was well enough to sit on the porch for a while at least. If walkers came, then she had a gun with the silencer on. Really, it was just an excuse to sit by herself and think for a while.

She sat down on the porch of the house and glanced out in the night. She couldn't hear any rustling or moaning, so as far as she knew, there were no walkers around. She was deep into her own thoughts when she heard a voice say: "Hey princess." she reckognized the voice as Tommy's. Plus, no one in their right mind would ever think of calling her 'princess'.

"Hey d-bag. What's up?" she asked, not really minding the company, although she had hoped that it would be Rick. Whom he now guessed was her boyfriend, perhaps? It felt so stupid to even think of it like that. Tommy sat down next to her on the porch and said:

"I heard you and Rick took things public today. Isn't he a bit old for you, Em?"

Emily instantly took offence of his words. How old did he think that Rick was? And why was it any of his business? Just because she had once been close to this man, it did not mean that he knew her now, or what she liked in men.

"Yeah, I guess we did. And no, he's not. I see you still have no kind of filter, Tommy." her tone revealed that she was a bit annoyed with what he had said.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't dump on your new boyfriend. However, I did come out here to talk with you about something. Remember Jane and Sarah? " Emily did not know why he had come out here to chat with her about some childhood friends of hers.

"Yeah, of course I do. Why?"

"Well, what if I told you that they are in our camp? That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I think you should come with me an Lo' when we leave, we're going to head out tomorrow. You should be with your friends."

His words utterly stunned her. Jane and Sarah were alive? Emily was rendered speechless as several things ran through her mind, like Rick, Maggie, Carol and generelly the whole group. Could she have it in her to leave them?

"I know that you have Rick here. I feel like I should tell you though, that I talked to him earlier today and he said that he expected you to leave at some point anyway. "

His words hurt a lot more than she would let on. In a way, she suspected that Tommy might have twisted Rick's words. But what if it was the truth?

"I will have to think about it, Tommy."

Tommy simply nodded and stroke her arm lightly with his hand before he rose to his feet and walked inside. Emily had a lot to consider. Even though she would love seeing her friends, she knew that she would be leaving so much behind. Most of all, she thought of Rick. They had just begun this rollercoaster of a relationship, and she was not sure of how it would end. But she couldn't help but to feel as if she would regret not finding out exactly how their love story would end. She had never expected to feel for Rick. She was not sure if she was any good in a real relationship, or if it was worth hurting him.

Her entire life, she had been her main priority. Of course, she had loved all of her three sisters intensly, but she had never been responsible. She had always been the youngest sister that everyone always shook their heads at, when they found out about her latest endeavours. She had never dreamt of settling down, like her sisters had. Her entire life, she had always been ' Crazy Emily'. The one that never settled or attempted to find love. So, it came as no surprise that Rick's hurtful words hurt her immensly. Of all people, she did not want him to think of her like that. Perhaps it would be best if she were to leave. Then he could find someone who was more like how Emily assumed that his wife had been like. Loyal and stable.

After Rosita had turned up to trade watch with her, Emily immedietly marched in Rick's room. She found him laying on his bed with closed eyes. Emily knew that Carl and Judith were in the room next to Rick's and that they were probably sleeping, so Emily tried her hardest not to yell at him.

"Rick? Wake up." she snapped. Rick instantly opened his eyes and looked a bit confused as he found her eyes with his own.

"What's wrong?" he asked. What wasn't wrong?

"I had a chat with Tommy. Did you know that he was planning on asking me to go with him and Lo'? "

Rick sat up and stared at her.

"Yeah, he talked to me yesterday. " Emily couldn't believe it. Did this mean that what Tommy had said was true?

"He mentioned that. He said that you expected me to leave at some point anyway, is that true?" Emily sneered, crossing her arms over her chest. Rick looked shocked at first, and then his expression turned to anger.

"That son of a bitch. Of course not, do you honestly think that I want you to leave? " Rick snapped and stood up. He walked over to her and closed his door before taking her hand and leading her over to his bed. They both sat down and he continued, "I told him that I couldn't force you to stay if you wanted to leave, but that's all. I wouldn't have kissed you like that infront of everyone if I wanted you to leave me."

"So the whole scene you put on today was really to persuade me to stay? Why couldn't you have just told me?" Emily wanted to get to the bottom of this. She wanted Rick to be honest with her.

"Hell no. I did it because I want everyone to know that you're _with _me. I couldn't take this whole childish charade we had going on any longer. "

"I told Tommy that I would think about it. I want to be with you Rick, I'm just not sure if that is what is best for you. I've never done something serious like this. I'm not that kind of person." Emily whispered. Her anger was being replaced by sadness.

"I don't care. I want you. I know what you're like just as well as you know what I'm like. You can't just walk away from this without even trying." Rick muttered. Emily looked at him and placed her hand on his. Rick entwined his fingers with her own. It took one look from him for Emily to know that the right thing was to stay with Rick. She wouldn't know what the future had in store for them, but she needed to get over her childish fears and let herself be happy.

Emily leaned forward and kissed him. They had kissed many times before, but this was the first time that she kissed him without holding back on any of the feelings that went through her as they held each other. They got undressed and laid down under the covers. This was the first time that she could sleep with him knowing that she would not need to go back to her own room when they were done. The prospects of that made it much more passionate.

Whatever tomorrow had in store, she knew that by being with him, she could begin to grow into the person that she was always meant to be.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey darlings! THANK YOU so much for all the kind words! Honestly, I'm so moved that you like my story, it gives me so much confidence to continue on writing about our crazy little lovebirds!

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><p>Morning arrived earlier than Emily would have hoped for. She woke up in Rick's protective arms, and knew that this was where she was supposed to be. It seemed as if Judith had heard someone shuffling around in Rick's room, because Emily soon heard the baby whimpering. Rick immediately woke up as well, and placed a kiss on Emily's shoulder before he started to get up from his bed. As Judith broke out in a cry, they both assumed that Carl had gone out for breakfast. Emily sat up on the bed and pulled her clothes on before standing up.<p>

"Do you mind if I get her for you?" she asked Rick, who was pulling on his pants. Rick gave her a warm look, and then nodded.

"Sure, you do that. Just don't take it personally if she doesn't stop crying. She's not easy in the mornin'."

Emily walked out of the room and turned right to enter the kids room. She saw Judith standing up in her improvised crib, crying her small eyes out. Emily gently hushed the baby as she walked over to the crib. "Oh, it's alright darling." Emily extended her arms and Judith's cries grew less intense. She gently picked the baby up, trying not to strain her arm too much. Once Judith was in her arms, the baby stopped crying and started playing with Emily's hair.

"Hi, baby. Let's go to your daddy, huh?" Emily cooed, and grabbed a onesie that hung on the crib before she walked out. Once she entered Rick's – and perhaps hers, now- room, she was met by a stunned-looking Rick Grimes.

"She's usually so cranky in the mornin'. Hey Judy, daddy's here." Rick walked over to them and gently took the baby from Emily's arms. Emily was just about to straighten the covers on the bed and put down Judith's onesie on it when the small child started whimpering again.

"Well, it seems like daddy just won't cut it today." Rick joked, bouncing Judith on his hip.

Emily chuckled and extended her arms for Judith. When the baby was on her hip, Judith stopped crying and resumed tugging on Emily's hair. "I think it's 'cause I smell nicer. Isn't that right sweetheart? Daddy's smelly." Emily joked in a baby voice. Rick just shook his head and shot her one of his devilishly handsome smirks.

"Hey, I guess this means I can start puttin' you on diaper-duty." he responded, and his smirk grew even larger.

"I'm not sure who would be the most traumatized, me or Judith. I was never good at changing diapers. " . The thought of her nephews made her a bit sad. She wondered where they were, and if they were alive. After a while, Emily and her sister, along with her brother-in-law, had stopped searching for their other sisters. Emily would never forgive herself for leaving them behind, but she still held hope that one day, she might be reunited with them.

After Judith had her diaper changed by Rick, and her onesie on, the couple made their way out into the kitchen. Emily still had Judith on her hip, laughing along with Rick as they walked out together. They were met by Maggie and Glenn, who were in the kitchen observing a map. They both looked up and smiled at Emily and Rick.

"Hey, if it isn't the happy couple. Emily, Tommy and Louise are out in the yard packing their stuff together." Maggie announced.

"Oh, thanks. I guess I should go outside. Will you come with me?" Emily asked Rick, who simply nodded. Emily handed over Judith to Maggie, if Tommy got really upset, then they wouldn't want Judith to be out there. They both walked outside and saw Tommy and Louise attempting to make room for all of their belongings in their packs. Tommy saw Emily and Rick, and frowned when he saw that Rick's arm was around Emily's waist.

"I see your talk with him didn't go as planned." Tommy stated with a bitter tone in his voice.

"I can't go with you guys. I'm sorry. I'm so happy that Sarah and Jane are alright, but I can't leave. Not when I have Rick here. " Emily explained, trying to look as genuinely sorry as she possibly could. Rick squeezed her hip lightly with his hand to let her know that he was there for her.

"So you're just going to stay here and play wife with him? I never took you for someone who could be controlled, Em."

Emily frowned at his words. He knew nothing of her and Rick's relationship. " You don't know what you're talking about asshole. I didn't come out here to fight with you, you seriously need to back off."

"Tommy, she's obviously made up her mind. We should just leave." Louise tried to reason with her brother.

"No, we're not. Are you seriously going to try and pretend like what you have with him is worth more than being with your friends? I give it a month – if you'll make it that long - before you decide that he's old news and dump him. It's what you always do, Em', don't pretend like I don't know you." Tommy mocked. Emily could see that everyone that was outside were beginning to near them, if Tommy decided to try anything stupid.

"No, you don't know what I'm like. I haven't seen you since long before all of this shit went down, and you come here and think you know me? You need to leave, right now!" Emily could feel herself loosing her temper, and she knew that if she was starting to get mad, then Rick was already there.

"Don't tell me what to do, you bitch." Tommy yelled. This made Rick drop his hold of Emily's hip and charge forward, until he was right in front of Tommy.

"She told you to leave. So,_ leave_. Trust me brother, you don't want to stay and find out what I can do to you for callin' her that. " Rick threatened. His voice sounded both calm and collected, but Emily knew what brewed inside. In all honesty, she was a bit mortified that the whole group was now outside and witnessed the whole scene. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carl. He had his hand on his gun-holster. Emily quickly made her way over to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. Carl looked up at her and took her stern look as a sign to take his hand off of his gun.

"You're not the boss of me, old man. I've done things you can't even imagine." Tommy hissed. Emily was utterly stunned. She had never seen Tommy act this way towards her. She knew that this world that they lived in changed people, and her old friend had obviously taken a turn for the worse. Emily felt bad for Louise, who had to stand on side and witness her brother act this way.

"Oh yeah? Well, guess what. So have I. You're outnumbered man. Take your sister and get out." Rick raised his voice slightly and pointed at Louise as he spoke.

"Tommy, come on. Let's just go." Louise pleaded. Finally, reality seemed to set in for Tommy. He shot Emily one last look of hatred, before he grabbed his pack and started to make his way down the cemetary. Louise did not turn to look at Emily, she herself agreed that there was not much that could be said, the blonde woman just grabbed her pack and made her way down the cemetary as well.

Daryl walked up to Emily and said: "Yer' good? I can follow him for a while, make sure he doesn't come wanderin' back."

"That's fine Daryl. I think he got the message. Thanks though." Emily responded. The hunter gave her an approving look, and then wandered off. Emily watched as Tommy and Louise stormed off. When they both disappeared from her view, she turned to look at Carl. " Are you okay, kid?" she asked, hoping that the young boy wasn't mad.

"I'm fine. I'm just glad that you stayed, you make dad happy. " Carl replied, in a very straight forward manner, obviously something that he had inherited from his father. Emily smirked, and nudged the boy's arm with her hand.

"Good, he makes me happy too. Listen, why don't you come with me. I found some pretty neat stuff in the backyard. " Emily asked, hoping that Carl wouldn't have something against spending some time with her. She wanted to try and defuse the whole Tommy and Louise thing, she felt a bit ashamed that Carl had witnessed the whole scene.

"Sure, that sounds cool." Carl replied and followed Emily to the back of the house. Rick must have seen that they left, as he closed in behind them.

"Where are y'all headed to?" Rick asked, making Emily jump a bit as she realized that he was behind them.

"I wanted to show Carl something. " She answered, and entwined her fingers with Rick's as they walked. Once they got to the yard, Emily let go of Rick's fingers and jogged towards an old soccer ball.

"Told you I would give you a run for your money, kid." Emily winked at Carl and then proceeded to dribble the ball slowly between her feet.

"Soccer? Can you even play?" Carl asked suspiciously. Rick was just about to say something, Emily guessed that he was going to reprimand Carl, but she quickly answered herself:

"Of course I can. Come on now, unless you're chicken."

Emily saw as Carl's smirk grew. The boy ran over to her and quickly got the ball from her. They played for a good thirty minutes before Carl finally won over her, Emily could see Rick watching them with Judith in his lap.

"I'll get you next time, kid. This isn't over. " Emily panted, as she made her way over to Carl to give him a high five. The whole scene seemed almost idyllic, that is until Carol came running towards them, the horrified look in her face telling Emily that no good was coming from whatever the other woman had to say.

"Carol, what's wrong? " Rick asked as he ran over to Emily and Carl, Judith bouncing on his lap.

"We have to go. Right now. " Carol whispered.

"Walkers?" Emily asked, instantly stiffening up.

"Hundreds of them. They are heading this way. There's no time for packing, Daryl grabbed the gun bag, but we need to run." The panic that followed was nothing that Emily had ever experienced. She was grateful that she had put on a pair of jeans and a shirt, because it was officially the only clothing that she had now. Rick took a hold of both of his children in each hand, and then they ran as quickly as they could to the front.

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><p>It was too late.<p>

Walkers had come from every way, and one in particular was feeding on someone. It took a while for Emily to realize that it was Tyreese. Emily could hear Sasha's cries to her right, and as she looked around, she knew that there was nowhere that they could go. They were trapped.

"We need to head down in the basement and lock up, we wont make it other wise. " Rick stated, and ran as quickly as he could to the house, gun at the ready in one hand, and his baby daughter in the other.

"We have to go inside the house, they are coming too quickly, let's go!" Emily screamed as she pushed a nearly mummified corpse off of her. Everyone else started to slowly make their way towards her, and together they all hurried into the house with the sounds of gurgling walkers coming behind them. As they got into the house, Rick and Judith were nowhere to be seen. Emily wanted to believe that he had made his way downstairs, but the not knowing was killing her. Glenn and Daryl pushed a few heavy items infront of the door before they all hurried downstairs. If they were lucky, they had at least five-six minutes before the herd approached the house.

"Carl? Carl! Come here!" Emily exclaimed, and grabbed a hold of the boy's hand. She would not loose him.

They all headed down in the basement, a wave of relief passed through Emily as she immediately saw Rick, trying to comfort a shrieking Judith. They noticed that there were two doors. One that they locked and pushed a loose counter in front of. This was the door that led into the rest of the mansion. Then down a room that contained a few perfusion tables and other mortuary tools, was another door that seemed to be a lot heavier. They all made their way into the room and with some effort, they managed to get the door shut. Once inside, Emily looked around and figured that this must have been some sort of cold room, she spotted an old body refrigerator and signalled for the others to help her carry it towards the door.

Once they were done, everything was quiet. They heard nothing from outside, and as there was no scratching on the door or gurgling, she reckoned that walkers had not managed to find their way in yet. She spotted Rick, Carl and Judith and quickly made her way over to them. They were sitting down on the floor. Emily sunk to her knees in front of Rick. Carl took Judith from his father's lap, probably thinking that Rick would want to hug Emily. Instead, Rick gestured for her to turn around. She gave him a confused look before she turned around, and sat with her back facing Rick.

She wondered what he was doing, as he started to run his hands over her backs. Then, she realized that he must be looking for scratches. Emily knew that she didn't have any, but she let him look, if it meant that it would provide him with some comfort. When he was done, she felt Rick place a kiss on her shoulder. She moved back to him, leaning her back against the wall, and her head against Rick's shoulder.

No one spoke for a while. They were all still in shock. Emily herself felt incredibly saddened. This meant that when they were able to go back outside of this room, the mansion would most likely be ruined by walkers. She also figured that Tommy and Louise must not have been able to get far. She hoped that they had been able to avoid the herd, but she would probably never know. Further more, Tyreese was dead. Emily scanned the room with her eyes, and noted that everyone else was present. Her stomach sank when she saw the sobbing Sasha. Not only had the woman lost her partner, she had also lost her brother.

"What are we gonna' do?" Maggie asked quietly.

"We'll have to stay in here for a day, or two. Then we'll have to leave." Rick stated in an equally quiet tone.

"Do we have any food?" Glenn continued, as he held Maggie.

"I grabbed some stuff that was in the kitchen. Got some formula for Judith, a few water bottles and a few cans. It'll be tight." Daryl muttered. The hunter was truly a hero, whether he knew it or not.

Everyone stayed quiet for a long while after that. There was really nothing more to say. If walkers managed to break through both walls, they knew that there was not much to do. Luckily, the basement was quite secluded, walkers would probably not be attracted to going down there, but it also meant that they were all confined to one room. The room itself was quite large, but there was no privacy what so ever.

Emily looked at Rick. The man seemed hard-set. She raised her head and placed a light kiss on his neck. He turned his head towards her and placed a small kiss on her lips. " It'll be alright." Emily was not really comforted by his words, it seemed like Rick did not believe them himself. But for the moment, she would have to put her faith in him. For the first time, they had nowhere to run.


	13. Chapter 13

Hey guys! This week has been crazy! I've been super busy! I've decided that it's time to introduce a bit of Emily's past, so that we can get a better understanding of her, I hope you all like it :)

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><p>"<em>Emily Hannah King, would you please drop that cancer-stick and get inside? We're about to eat!" Emily rolled her eyes as her oldest sister Shannon called on her. She took a final drag of her cigarette before heading inside. The entire family was sitting down at the table, as usual. Emily had never been one for these family events. It felt like all they did was eat and bitch about each other. Her father stopped carving the roast, which Emily's mother always prepared for sunday dinner, as Emily sat down in her given place at the table.<em>

"_I thought you quit smoking, Mimi?" Her fathers nickname of her had never been one of Emily's favourites. She did not consider her name to be long enough to call for a nickname at all, but people insisted on calling her 'Em', which she could take, but her father's persistance of calling her 'Mimi' had never been appreciated. _

"_Yeah, well, I'm a weak person, dad." Emily replied in a sarcastic tone. _

"_I never raised you to be weak. I didn't raise you to get cancer from something as stupid as cigarettes either." her dad responded in a stern tone._

"_Could we please just eat instead of criticising Emily?" Emily's other sister Danielle exclaimed. Danielle had always been on Emily's side, which she appreciated. Emily showed her appreciation by gently stroking her sisters shoulder. Danielle was not usually this irritable, but with two little boys constantly running around like they were on the worlds worst sugar-rush, Emily could understand her. _

_The rest of the evening went by quickly. They ate, played monopoly and laughed. As they sat down to watch some tv in the living room, Emily's mother turned the tv on. A news broadcast was on, and it was, to say the least, extremely weird. _

"_For those of you that are just joining us, there has been reports of mentally unstable people who are on the loose. If you were to meet one of these individuals, do not attempt to make contact. I repeat, do not attempt to make contact. These people are extremely dangerous and possibly contagious. Scientists are currently working on finding a cure for this remarkable disease, witnesses claim that this is actually a question of reanimation.. That is, the living dead. The military is currently working on possibly evacuating these cities..."_

Emily awoke startled as she could no longer feel Rick's arms around her. She sat up and looked around, only to find him rocking Judith in his arms a few feet away from her. Everyone else was still asleep, Emily figured that it must still be night. Tomorrow, they would probably attempt leaving the mansion, hopefully most of the herd had passed on by now. First, they needed to come up with a plan on where to go next. They did still have a baby with them, and Judith was too young to be on the road for too long. It all seemed a bit hopeless, but the impressive thing about this group was that they never seemed to give up.

Emily watched as Rick put the sleeping baby down in yet another improved crib. Carol had made it out of a small hamper and some coats. After making sure that Judith was actually asleep, Rick looked up to notice Emily watching them, he offered her a faint smile before quietly making his way over to her. He sat down beside her and put his arm up so that she could lean on him. She did and placed her hand on his thigh. "You should sleep. We have a long day ahead of us." Rick whispered and placed his free hand on Emily's.

"I know. I'm just so anxious. I don't what I would do if anything happened to you." she mumbled back, and leaned her head to look at him.

"It'll be alright. We've had worse." Rick comforted, meeting her gaze with his undeniably piercing eyes.

"Is there any possibility that we could stay here? You know, if the herd has moved along." Emily already knew what he would say, but she felt as if she had to ask.

"Probably not. In my experience, if there's one herd, you can be sure that another will come. " Rick shrugged, attempting to sound indifferent. Emily had never thought in a million years that this was the life she was destined to live.

"I actually though that we might be able to live here. I mean, not permanently, but still." Rick looked at her sympathetically. Of course Emily had known that this house would not be safe forever. She just thought that amidst of all the other drama that was going on, they could avoid being chased away by walking corpses.

"I thought we would get to stay here for a while, too. " Rick replied. Emily had not really known the man for a copious amount of time, but in this new world, she felt like she could trust him with her life. And that was a lot, coming from her. She leant in and captured his lips with her own. They kissed slowly, it made Emily forget about all of their problems for a while. She fell asleep in his arms, awaiting tomorrow.

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><p>When she woke again, everyone else was already up. Emily quickly sat up and noticed that everyone was sitting in a circle, probably discussing strategies. She made her way over to the others, and took a place next to Rick, who was holding Judith in his arms. Rick placed a swift hand on her thigh and squeezed it lightly.<p>

"I still think we would all be better off trying to stay here. There's been no movement as far as I could hear, so there might still be a chance for us here!" Carol proposed, but was quickly shot down by Rick.

"No, if there's one herd, there will be another. We can't risk that after Tyreese. "

"Well, this is as good of a time as any to throw Atlanta in the mix. We're all going, we could end this thing once and for all. " Abraham stated. This made Emily a bit annoyed. A herd had just come and gone, probably from Atlanta, the town itself fell a long time ago. She had a hard time believing that even if they managed to get Eugene there, if something could actually be done. There was no military any more. If they managed to solve everything, that would be amazing, but she would not risk her life in the off-chance that Eugene _might _pull it off. She was surprised to see that Rick seemed to be considering it.

"It might be our best option." Rick began, but Emily cut him off.

"- It's not. We can't head to Atlanta with a baby! The city fell a long time ago, man. If Eugene pulls it off, then sure, but how many of us will die getting him there?" She received a surprised look from Rick. He had probably not expected her to disagree with him. That in itself was a whole other issue, but the one at hand seemed more pressing.

"I'll have to side with Emily on this one. 'Just doesn't seem do-able." Daryl muttered, poking at an empty can with his foot. Emily was a bit surprised that Daryl actually agreed with her, but it was nice to know that she could share her argument with him.

"Well, what are you going to do then? Lurk in the forest and live off of damn squirrels for the rest of your lives?" Abraham huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"_Well_, if another herd does come, where do you think it's coming from? I'd say the city that has been owned by walkers since the beginning! " Emily exclaimed, she could feel herself getting annoyed.

Abraham was about to snap something back, but Rick spoke up first.

"I will have to think about all of this. Abraham, Rosita and Eugene are leaving regardless, but we will consider going with them. " Rick stated firmly, declaring that the debate was over. Emily did not feel at ease at all. She was honestly worried that the group would be heading for Atlanta. She had no doubt that Eugene might know the key to fixing this colossal mess, but she was not ready to bet her own life on it. Or Rick, Carl and Judith's either, for that matter.

Everyone resumed to their own business, and Emily turned to walk over to her pack. She had chosen a nice corner for herself, she also had some of Rick's stuff there. She noticed that someone had placed her share of the 'breakfast' near the shirt that she used as a pillow. She sat down and noticed that her food consisted of canned stew. Marvelous. She shoved the ill-tasting food in her mouth and watched as Rick came to sit down beside her.

The man had dropped off Judith to Carl, so he must have wanted to speak with her alone. She did know to some extent what he was most likely to say, but she could not be bothered.

"I know you were surprised that I didn't agree with you, but I won't apologize for it. The idea is stupid as hell." She said in a low voice.

"You're entitled to your own opinion. I just think you should keep an open mind, that's all." Rick replied, whilst running his hand through his hair.

"I don't like to bet on my own life, Rick." Emily muttered, and shoved the last of the stew in her mouth.

"Do you think that I do? My main priority is keepin' my kids, and you, safe. " Rick exclaimed. She had not missed their arguments. Emily could already tell that this would be an issue. She could not believe how stubborn this man could be. It did not rhyme well with the fact that she was incredibly stubborn as well.

"Then you shouldn't head off into something that we can't know is real. We're running out of places to hide, babe. " Emily placed the palm of her hand on Rick's cheek. She would give anything not to see that slightly betrayed look on Rick's face, but she could not agree with him on this. They both stopped arguing when they heard a loud bang coming from the door. They looked up to see Abraham and Rosita moving things around so that they could get out. Rick and Emily immediately rose to their feet. Rick stormed over to them and sneered:

"We have to know where we're goin' before we leave this room!"

"You take all the time you want sheriff, but we're leaving." Rosita replied, and then she and Abraham moved the last refrigerator from the door, and opened it. There was dead silence. No walkers so far. The other door was given the same treatment as the last, and then they all started to head out. Emily looked at Rick for answers, but he just handed Judith over to her so that he could keep Carl close to him.

Emily bounced the baby on her hip, trying to keep Judith satisfied so that she would not start wailing all of a sudden. With her gun in one hand, and the baby in the other, she headed out behind Rick and Carl. It seemed as if they were right. The herd had moved on. There were three walkers outside, but they were so heavily decayed that Glenn and Michonne took them out quickly. Emily stayed behind Rick, and looked around to see the damage that had been done to the house. It seemed as if the walkers had made their way back outside to try and get some of Tyreese's remains. Daryl and Carol left to check the rest of the house, whilst Rick continued his argument with Abraham and Rosita.

"Would you wait for just a day? I have to decide what's best for this group, and I'm not sure yet."

"Fine. We'll wait one day. Then, we're going. With or without you." Abraham snapped, and both of the men stared at each other angrily. So, as it seemed, Emily had twenty-four hours to convince Rick not to go to Atlanta. This would not be an easy task at all, but she would not give up without a fight.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey darlings! I just noticed a HUUUGE mess up on my part. Of course, Eugene, Abraham and Rosita were heading to Washington DC, not Atlanta. Not my best, I'll have to admit, especially considering the fact that I'm a huge fan of the show. So, from now on, I'll be sure to write Washington instead, of course. Hope it didn't bug you too much! - Shame on me- This turned out to be a bit of a short chapter, I've been crazy busy in school, so this short thing actually took me five days to write. I'm working on trying to piece together where I want the characters to go next, without compromising what they have right now. So, your continued support is priceless, of course! Love y'all, I read all of your reviews and I want to give each and every one of you a big hug! Muah!

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><p>Rick's POV<p>

Rick couldn't remember the last time that he had felt this conflicted. On one hand, the prospects of going to Washington and getting to put an end to all of this was very tempting, but although he knew that everyone was probably not going to make it out of there alive. Then there was the fact that he had Emily, who thought the very idea of going to the capital was absolutely ludicrous. Rick knew that there was a chance that Eugene might not pull through on his promise, but in all honesty, he thought Washington was their best option simply because he did not know where they would go otherwise.

Emily had been right when she said that they were starting to run out of places to go. Even though they had been on the road before, and it had all seemed hopeless, they had somehow managed to find something stable for the moment, and they had pressed on. Rick was beginning to lose hope that there was such a place for them still.

Rick was standing outside the house, keeping watch with Daryl. He needed an excuse to get away from Emily's judging glares, so he was happy to oblige when Daryl had asked him for some company.

"So, what are you gonna' do?" Daryl asked. Rick let out a sigh, he did not really know what to say.

"I don't know, man. Even if we don't go to Washington, where are we gonna' go?"

"Beats me. I just know that I'm not keen on bettin' my life that asswipe in there knows how to end this thing. There has to be some other house around here, or somethin'. "

Rick smirked at Daryl's remark about Eugene. He wasn't too fond of the man either, something seemed off about him. "Yeah, I get that. But I can't tell everyone that we're going on the road again. This house was supposed to let us rest for a while. "

"Maybe we can rest here. The house is still standin'. If another herd comes, we'll leave. But for now I think it's all good. "

Rick was about to respond when he saw a car in the distance, that parked right beside the cemetary. Rick and Daryl started to make their way over to it, guns at the ready. Suddenly, Rick noticed out of the corner of his eye that Daryl stopped dead in his tracks. "What is it?" He asked the hunter, and stopped as well. Daryl looked utterly shocked.

"That's them. They're the ones that took Beth."

"What? Are you sure?" Rick asked, not believing the words that were coming out of Daryl's mouth.

"Yes I'm sure. " Daryl spat, and started to march over to the vehicle. Rick followed suit, pointing his gun at the car. Two men stepped out of the car, they were both dressed as cops.

"Where the hell is she assholes!?" Daryl shouted at the strangers. They both seemed puzzled, and raised their hands over their heads.

"What? Who?" One of the men asked. He had dark hair and fair skin.

"Beth! You are the shitfaces that took her!" Daryl continued to shout, heading right for the man with his rifle pointing right at him.

"Beth? You were with her? Look, we were just stopping to check for supplies. Beth is in our camp, she's alright." The other man answered in a calm voice. He looked exactly alike his partner, it made Rick assume that they must be related in some way.

"And where is your camp?" Rick asked.

"In Atlanta. We have a hospital there, we treat injured people."

"Well, you're gonna take us to her. Right now. " Daryl determined, not sounding like he was up for any sort of resistance.

"You need to drop your weapons to the ground." Rick continued, and watched carefully as the other two men did as they were told. Rick and Daryl grabbed each man and placed the cuffs that they had with them around their hands, tied behind their backs.

Carol had made their way to them whilst they were cuffing the men, and she had Emily in tow.

"What's going on?" Carol asked, looking rightfully confused.

"These are the guys that took Beth, we're gonna go get her, right now." Daryl explained sourly.

"What? No, Rick you stay. I'll go with Daryl." Carol continued. She probably didn't want to leave Daryl to his fate if things got ugly. Rick was hesitant though, it wouldn't be like him to skip a mission like this.

"I'll go Carol. You shouldn't" Rick started, but was cut off by Carol.

"I can handle myself. You have to stay here, negotiate with Abraham. " Carol stated, and then grabbed Rick's rifle.

"Fine by me. But let's go. Now." Daryl spat, as he pushed the men into the backseat of the car. Rick found their lack of resistance odd, and he took Carol to the side.

"Listen, you need to watch your backs. These guys aren't puttin' up any sort of resistance, so that must mean something. Be careful." he warned the grey-haired woman.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry." Carol said and reached out her hand to rub Rick's shoulder.

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><p>Rick and Emily watched as Carol and Daryl got in the car and drove off. Rick did not feel at ease. Something had to be wrong, and he did not feel like he should have let them go. He felt Emily entwine her fingers with his own, as a sign of comfort. He turned to face her and said:<p>

"I shouldn't have let them go. Something is wrong. I can feel it."

"Daryl wouldn't have let you decide that for him. He needs to do this. I'm sure that they will be fine." Emily replied and reached her free hand up to Rick's cheek. He felt a bit more at ease once he had heard her say those words. God, she seemed to be his voice of reason for practically everything.

"I love you. " he didn't quite comprehend what he was saying before the words had already left his mouth. Once he did realize what he had just said, he felt a bit panicked. He had never said that to her before. He had wanted to, trying to reason with himself that if they died tomorrow, he would want to have said it at least once. Something had always stopped him though, mostly because he wanted to be certain that she felt the same way.

Emily looked a bit shocked. He couldn't really blame her. He searched in her eyes for some sort of answer, but he couldn't figure out what was going on inside of her head. After what felt like forever, she finally replied:

"I love you too, Rick."

He could feel a smile creeping up on him. He stroked her arm with his hand, and drew her closer to him. When he kissed her, he knew that he would go anywhere, as long as she was there with him. If she wouldn't go to Washington, then what choice did he have? Emily wrapped her arms around his waist, and leaned her head on the crook of his neck. Rick had never thought that he would find someone who would mean this much to him. He had been set on living the rest of his life alone, when she had come along, he would have never guessed that it would lead to this.

"Are you set on not going to Washington?" he asked her, hoping that he could get her to change her mind. The talk that hehad with Daryl earlier, had made him realize that he had no idea of where they should go next, if not Washington. He was running out of plans, and it scared him.

"I think it's a dumb idea. We can't know if Eugene is legit, and what if he isn't? Judith is just a baby, she shouldn't be on the road for longer than necessary." Emily replied, her voice sounded as apologetic as it possibly could. Rick didn't want her to agree with him all the time, but this time, he honestly thought that she might be wrong.

"I agree about Judy, but other than that, you need to see things from my perspective. It's like you said, we're running out of options, Em. If we don't go to D.C, then I don't know where we would go. I can't keep my kids here if it means that herds will keep passing through."

"There has to be something Rick, we can't just give up on a safe place. That is more important now than chasing after some pipe dream that we barely even know anything about."

"Fine. We won't go then. " He could tell that Emily was shocked when she listened to what he said, but she quickly replaced the look with a warm smile.

"Thank you. I swear you're making the right call, babe." She leant forward to hug him, and Rick took this chance to nozzle his face in her neck, and draw in that wonderful smell that she always wore. He knew that Abraham would probably have a legit reason for doubting his leadership skills now, but when he saw that look on Emily's face, he knew that he had made the right call. Now it was just a matter of telling them that at least Rick, Emily, Carl, Judith and probably Daryl as well, would not be going to Washington.

He hated thinking about splitting the group up, but he would respect anyone that chose to go with Abraham and his group. Just because he had made this decision for himself, not that he would want to take credit for Emily's convincing, but as he held her, he realized that this might mean that a big part of the group would be leaving.

Rick remembered that Glenn and Maggie had once told Abraham that they would go with him, when they were back at the church. He did not know if this deal was still valid, but he would let them decide that for themselves.

"Do you want to go back inside? We should probably go tell everyone about Daryl and Carol." Emily proposed. Rick nodded in return, and together they walked - Rick's arm around Emily's shoulder, and her arm around his waist. In the midst of their conversation, he had almost put his worry about whether Daryl and Carol would make it , out of his head. Of course, it was all flooding back to him now.

Where they would go, he had absolutely no idea. He just knew that with Emily by his side, the uncertainty was a bit more welcomed.


	15. Chapter 15

Alright, so I watched 'Coda'. Hated it. I'm a huuge Bethyl shipper, and this broke my heart. I did name Emily in honour of Emily Kinney, who is an amazing actress. I do feel like the writers on TWD made the wrong decision when killing off Beth, not just because I love the character, but because they had a chance of making her the unlikely survivor. She had such potential, and it's such a shame to see her go before her time. Hopefully I'm not spoiling anyone, but as it has been a few days since the episode aired, I'm guessing that most of you have seen the episode. If not, send me a virtual slap. Let's just keep our chins up, darlings!

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><p>As Emily walked inside with Rick, she pondered over what they had just confessed to each other. She had told her previous partners that she loved them, but she had never meant it like she had when she said it to Rick. He truly was one of a kind, he was her comfort in this shit hole of a world. She knew that she was younger than him, in the regular world their relationship would have been questioned a thousand times more than it currently was. It was odd. On one side, she wondered if this was moving too fast. If Rick would get tired of her, or if he would think that she was childish. On the other hand, she had never felt more appreciated or loved. The man might be quiet, stern and with some people, cruel. But she loved him nonetheless.<p>

Emily could figure out for herself that Rick had not always been the way that he was now. Many people in the group had told her that Rick had softened up when she came around, she took a lot of pride in that. She would not want to see how Rick got when he was surrounded by enemies, something told her that was not something that she would want to see. However, if his ways meant that they could be together, she hoped that she could look past that. She knew that if anyone were to threaten Carl, Judith or herself, Rick would stop at nothing to keep them safe. In turn, that made her feel safe.

They both made their way inside, Rick expressed that they had to find Maggie straight away. Emily was so excited to see the look on her friends face. After her talk with Maggie, when she was patching Emily up from her incident, she could tell that the woman missed her little sister like nothing else. As they walked inside, they were instantly met by Maggie.

"What was all the commotion outside?" the other woman looked worried, rightfully so. It seemed like there was never a calm moment for the group.

"Maggie, it was the people who took Beth. They have some hospital in Atlanta, Daryl and Carol went with them now to go get her." Rick explained. Maggie's face went from looking shocked, in disbelief and happy in a matter of seconds.

"S-she's alive? Bethy's alive?" Maggie whispered, and tears began to stream down her face. Glenn joined them, and quickly put his arms around his wife's shoulders.

"She's alive, Mags. They're going to bring her home." Emily said, not being able to hide the smile on her face.

"We should go. We have to go help them. I need to go save my sister!" Maggie exclaimed. Emily and Rick shared a look. For the time being, it was probably best to let Daryl and Carol go at it alone. Emily herself was a bit conflicted. She knew that the only car that was available belonged to Abraham and his group. They had fixed it up, awaiting the time that they would leave for Washington.

"Maggie, I don't want you to get your hopes up. I'm praying for the life of me that Beth's alright, but.." Rick started. Emily squeezed his hand to let him know that she was there. She knew that there was a possibility that Beth wasn't alive at all. Or that Daryl and Carol coming over there would mean that they put the young woman in more danger than she was before.

"That's bullshit. I'm going, right now." Maggie stated, her tone of voice clearly stating that she was not to be messed with at the moment.

"I seem to recall that the only vehicle available belongs to myself and my group. " Abraham intervened, walking up behind them. Maggie turned around to face him, her facing glistening with tears.

"Abraham, please. It's my sister. I will go with you to Washington, I promise. Just let me bring my sister home."

Emily glanced up to Rick. He seemed a bit panicked by all the commotion. In the midst of all this, Carl walked up to them with Judith in his arms. Emily bent down to take the small girl from her brother. Judith, whom was used to a lot of noise, seemed unbothered by the scene that was taking place before her. She just played with Emily's hair and babbled to herself.

"Now, I would consider that. But we have a long way ahead of us, and Atlanta is not where we need to be going. I need to keep Eugene safe, for all of us. There is nothing in your deal that sounds even mildly attractive to me. I don't know your sister, I am very sorry for you, but we need to stick to the plan." Abraham argued, probably knowing that his statement was very insensitive. Emily truly felt for Maggie and Glenn. The only reason that Daryl and Carol had left right away was because there was a limited number of seats in the car, and every minute that they wasted seemed to be too much.

"Hold up, man. This is her sister. You wanted reinforcements from our group, she's offerin' it to you. The least you can do is compromise." Rick snapped, walking up to Abraham.

The men kept arguing, and Emily slipped an arm around Carl's shoulders. This didn't seem right. They were all supposed to look out for each other. She could only imagine the pain that Maggie must have gone through. She realized that she had been selfish. She was only looking out for herself, Rick and his children. Emily saw the whole picture, for the first time. That was why she didn't regret the words that then flew out of her mouth:

"What if we all go with you?"

The men stopped arguing, and all of them turned to look at her. Rick looked confused and a bit worried. He shook his head, but Emily decided to ignore him and continued:

"I mean, I can't speak for everyone. But I can speak for myself. I'm a capable fighter, and I will go with you after we go to Atlanta. You have that church short bus, I reckon that will do just fine. "

"No, Emily. " Rick started, but was cut off by Sasha:

"I'll go too."

"That seems just fine and dandy, ladies, but I'm not looking to make this an all estrogen mission. You're gonna need to offer up something more." Abraham answered, and looked at Rick.

Rick did not look at all pleased. Emily could understand why. She had been fighting going to Washington with all that she had, and now she just changed her mind without discussing it with him. Emily herself reasoned that it was better if Rick got to go back and be with his kids. The rest would work itself out.

"I can't leave my kids." Rick looked desperate for any other solution than the one that Emily was offering. He walked up to her and put his arm around her waist.

"Dad.. You should go. We can stay here, in the downstairs room. " Carl mumbled, leaning against Emily as well. She was truly touched by how brave this young man was. Emily knew that the boy had warmed up to her quickly, he probably missed having someone else to lean on, besides his father. She was happy to play whatever part he wanted.

Rick took a long look at his kids, and then said: "I'll go to Atlanta for reinforcement, but I won't go to Washington. " The man stopped to look at Emily with a look that she couldn't quiet decipher, before he continued "Em, you were right. I can't."

Emily shot her boyfriend a sympathetic look, but she did not expect Carl to chime in.

" Why do you have to go, Emily? You can't just leave!"

Emily was surprised to hear Carl react to intensely at her leaving for Washington. She handed Judith over to Rick, and then gave Carl her full attention. She had never been good with kids. Not teenagers either, for that matter, given that she never felt like she had grown out of adolescence herself.

"Carl, listen to me kid. We have to do this. I'll be back before you know it, and we can start finding a place for us all to be safe in."

Carl did not seem pleased by her answer at all. In fact, his eyes began to well up, and he furiously wiped away the tears that were threatening to spill down on his cheeks .

"It's not fair. You won't come back. Just like Shane, Hershel and.. mom. I know it."

Before Emily could say anything, the boy ran away into the house. Emily sighed and leaned into Rick. It was not ideal for her to offer herself to Abraham, but there wasn't many left for the man to choose from.

"I can go instead of Emily. " Michonne offered. Emily was touched by the woman's offer. But, she did know the harsh truth, and that was that the woman would be of better use protecting Carl and Judith.

"Thanks, but no. You should stay here, help Rick. It will just be you, him and the kids. You're their best chance." Emily replied. She was still recovering from her injuries, and she knew that Michonne was a better option for helping Rick if needed.

Emily looked over and saw Eugene and Tara, standing behind all of them. Emily had not spoken much to either of them. Eugene, she was not too fond of. But she did feel bad for Tara. The girl didn't say much, and she knew that the brunette had been a part of the governors group before the attack on the prison. Emily reckoned that Tara still felt like she owed the group for what had happened.

"It's settled then. After Atlanta, we'll find the rest of you a proper vehicle, and then we'll hit the road. Sorry Rick. I'll take care of your girl." Abraham stated, looking over at a very stern-looking Rick.

After that, they all scattered to find supplies and whatnot. Carl and Judith would bring down mattresses and food to the downstairs room that they had all been hiding out in, and then the rest of them would seal the house shut. After Rick returned, he would wait there with them until Emily and the rest got back. It had just dawned on Emily that she would be away from Rick for what already felt like forever.

Emily managed to capture Rick, the man was scavenging the cupboards for any sort of food that he could bring downstairs. She snaked her arms around his waist and hugged him from behind. "I'm so sorry for this, Rick." She could feel his heart thumping loudly, and then he turned around to hug her back. They held each other for a while. Emily looked up at him, and met his blue eyes with her own. She would never get used to how gorgeous his eyes were. It was like she wanted to savour every moment of staring at him.

Rick leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was desperate, like there was no tomorrow. Rick broke the kiss and placed both of his hands on her cheeks.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

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><p>After everything had been sorted out, and Carl, Judith and Michonne were safely sealed inside of the downstairs room, they all headed out on the road in the church bus that Abraham had fixed up. Emily sat next to Rick, holding his hand in her own. Maggie looked anxious, Daryl and Carol would probably not be in Atlanta for a while, if they had any luck, they would be able to catch them before they arrived.<p>

Emily wanted nothing else than to grab Rick and run off back to the mortuary, but she knew that these people were her family. And you never let family down. Not when it mattered the most.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! God, it's been a long time hasn't it? I'd like to say that I've been away on some exotic adventure, but the truth isn't quite as exciting. I've actually just been crazy busy in school, as per usual. We're finally "out" for winter-break, so I finally have some time to continue this little story of mine. I hope you haven't forgotten about our crazy love-birds! Something that I have noticed is that my reviews have dwindled a bit, I appreciate all sorts of reviews tremendously, as it helps me with ideas, not only of how to improve my writing, but also to keep my inspiration up. I love all of you, and I hope that you will like this chapter. Something exciting is in store for Rickily and the rest of our group. :)**

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><p>It felt like they had driven for hours on end. Emily nearly dozed off when Rick gently patted her cheek. They had arrived. They could see the car that Daryl and Carol had driven in, and some sort of conversation was being held between the hunter, Carol and the cops that they had been escorted by. Emily noticed that the conversation seemed to be going sort of good, at least there wasn't any fighting involved, it did seem however as if some scheming was going on. They all made their way out of the bus, and Daryl quickly swirled around, crossbow raised at the noise. When he noticed that it was them, he immediately lowered his favorite weapon of choice. He and Carol offered them a faint smile as they all approached them.<p>

"I thought you would have gone in guns blazin' at this point." Rick greeted his friend, and hugged Carol tightly.

"We've learned from the best. Don't go in without a plan." Daryl replied and nodded at Emily who closed in at Rick's side.

"Are you making any progress?" Emily asked, and noticed that the cops seemed at ease with them all being around. This struck her as odd, if it had been her, she would have been a lot more worried.

" ' Seems like some sort of super bitch is runnin' the joint. These two have no trouble with her going down." Daryl shrugged, and looked at the two cops who nodded. One of them, a rather handsome looking man spoke up:

"We're all getting tired of Dawn and her antics. The place was supposed to be about helping people, it's become corrupted."

Emily sympathized with the two men. She could understand that this must seem like a golden opportunity for them, the question was if they were in fact playing them. If she had learned anything at this point, it was that people could not be trusted. If this Dawn was as bad as they claimed, then fine, they would kill two birds in one stone, as long as they all came out of the ordeal alive.

Rick seemed a bit more suspicious than the rest of them. Emily knew him well enough to gather that Rick did not trust easily, and that he would definitely not start with these two cops that had a part in holding a member of their group hostage.

"How do we know that you're not just gonna' hand us over to this Dawn character?" Rick drawled, frowning at the two men.

"I guess you don't. But we're on your side. I can understand that you want to protect your group, and your woman, but we're honestly just here to help. Dawn's reign of terror has to end, before she winds up getting us all killed." The other man said.

"What are your names?" Maggie asked.

"I'm Greg, this is my brother Michael. " The man who had just spoken continued. Emily had figured out that they must be related in some way, and it seemed as if her predictions were correct.

"Well, let us in on the plan then." Rick stated, and placed his hand on Emily's lower back swiftly before he walked over to Daryl and Carol.

"The plan is to go in, and hopefully get Dawn's attention. That way, we can make a trade. Me and Greg for Beth. She'll panic, if it had been up to her, she would probably try to kill you all. But, she still has to hold up appearances, and show that we are more important than one girl. That'll be your chance to grab her and get out of there before any sort of argument happens. " Greg explained. Rick nodded and then asked:

"And how do you propose that we 'get her attention' ? Go in and shoot the place up?"

"Nah, that will hopefully not be necessary. The best way to get in is through the back. We keep all the.. Things there. If you shoot some of them, someone is bound to hear it. "

The plan seemed to be moderately safe. Emily did not have a problem with it, the only issue at hand would be if this Dawn was as willing to co-operate as the men claimed.

"We need to have some sort of back-up plan if this Dawn isn't willing to trade." Carol pointed out. She was right of course. In this world, you needed a plan a, a plan b and even a plan c.

"Trust me. She'll make the trade. She had no other option." Michael replied.

"Y'know, that's the thing. I don't trust you. " Daryl muttered, and gave the man a stern look.

Michael shrugged. "What other choice do you have?"

"Well, let's get this show on the road then. But trust me on this man, if you are tryin' to play us in any way, I'll make sure to put a bullet in each of your heads. I don't miss." Rick threatened, and rubbed his hand on the gun that was safely tucked away in his gun belt. The men seemed a bit nervous, but they kept on a brave face.

Rick turned and wandered over to Emily. He placed his hand on her hips and looked into her eyes. "Are you okay with this?"

"I'm fine, Rick. I just want to get this over with." Emily replied, and put her hands on his chest. She could feel his heart beating in a quick pace. He was probably as riled up as she was.

"It beats for you. I love you." Rick whispered, and placed a quick, but intense kiss on her lips. Emily replied to the kiss, and took a minute to look at him before they all started to make their way to the hospital.

Emily took out her gun and raised it. She needed to be at the ready for whatever was about to happen. Daryl and Rick held a hand on each of the men and kept their guns raised in their other hand so that the men had no chance to run. When they had arrived at the back of the hospital, they could see that there were a few walkers roaming around inside of the fence. Emily thought quickly to herself that this must be the perfect place to set camp in. It really was a shame that they would have to leave.

She noticed that there were a few cops on the roof, and they had probably seen them by now. Carol kicked the fence open, and then, all hell broke loose. Guns were being fired at them, and Emily could hear bullets pierce through the sky. She ran over to take cover from behind a dumpster. Maggie closed in at her side, and they exchanged a panicked look. Rick had dragged Greg, who appeared to have been shot in the leg, behind a dumpster that was located on the other side of theirs and fended off a walker before he shouted:

"We have two of your men! We're lookin' to make a trade for Beth Greene!"

The gunfire stopped. Emily could hear the men on the roof talking among themselves, although she could not make out what they were saying, she hoped that it was good. It seemed as if they were hunched behind the dumpsters for forever, until she could hear a door creak open.

"Give us our men and we'll consider a trade." A man called out. It seemed like such a stupid thing to say, it almost made her smirk. He couldn't possibly think that they were that dumb?

"That's not how it works. Bring Beth outside, and we'll make the trade." Rick shouted back.

Emily could hear a crackling sound, she immediately recognized it as the sound coming from a walkie-talkie. "Dawn, you need to bring Beth outside. They're not budging. Over." The man immediately got a reply. She could not hear what the woman was saying, but soon enough, the door was opened once more, and from what Emily could hear, multiple people walked outside. Emily and Maggie both stood up, and she could hear Maggie gasp as she saw her sister. Emily had never met Beth before, but assumed that the blond girl that was standing beside a woman that held her arm in a strong grip, must be Beth. And the woman that was holding on to her had to be Dawn.

They all closed in on the cops, it seemed as if all the walkers that had been there had been taken down, so at least that was out of the way. Emily kept her gun at the ready, and closed in at Rick's side once more. He still held Greg in a tight grip. The man seemed rather faint, and he hobbled beside Rick.

"I'm willing to let Beth go, but I want Noah back." Dawn stated, a very stern look on her face.

"We don't have anyone named Noah, so you're out of luck. " Daryl spat and raised his gun at Dawn. The woman seemed to consider the trade without that part, and at last seemed to make a decision.

"Fine. We'll let them go at the count of three. One.. Two... Three." When Dawn said three, she kept her promise, and let Beth go. The young woman stumbled over to Daryl, who was the closest to her. He had let Michael go, and Rick had done the same with Greg. The men made their way over to Dawn and her group of cops, and all seemed to be fine before Dawn spoke once more:

"One of my men are injured. That was not part of the deal."

"If your men had not begun to fire at us, then that would never have happened. " Rick explained in a calm, albeit warning tone, clearly marking out that Dawn should not press this further. Emily glanced over to Beth. She seemed to be extremely fed up, and Emily felt a stone set in her stomach as the blonde started to make her way over to Dawn.

Everyone stared in shock as Beth went over to stand right in front of Dawn. It seemed like forever until Beth finally said:

"I get it now. "

And with that, the blonde raised a pair of scissors that had been hid in her sleeve and quickly stabbed Dawn in the shoulder with it. Emily could see, as if in slow-motion how Dawn raised her gun and shot at Beth. The bullet pierced through Beth's arm, and she fell to the ground. Emily saw that the bullet had gone through her arm, but it appeared as if Daryl had not seen this as he immediately stalked over to Dawn with his gun raised. The woman stared at Daryl in panicked, and managed to whisper " I didn't mean to" before Daryl shot a bullet through her skull. She fell to the ground, dead. Emily anticipated that the other police officers would start shooting, but no one raised their guns.

Emily saw that Beth was beginning to regain consciousness, which was a relief, as she was now sure that the bullet had only hit her arm. She could hear Maggie cry near her, and Emily watched in shock as Daryl realized that Beth was not dead. Although that was a relief, there was still a big problem at hand. Daryl had just killed the chief of their camp, without a valid reason, as it would seem. She barely had time to react before one of the officers raised his gun and fired it straight at them. Emily could only watch as Rick quickly shot the man, but as she heard Daryl scream: "No!" she knew that someone had been hit.

As she looked to her side, she saw that Carol was lying on the ground, face up. She had blood trickling down her shirt, and Emily knew that she was dead. She instantly shrieked, and started to cry. Not her. Not Carol.

"Everybody stop! No more!" Rick shouted. Emily sobbed, but knew that she could not fall apart right now.

"Please, just take your group and get out of here. No more. Dawn needed to die, her henchman too, but none of us want any trouble. " A female officer replied.

"Anyone who wants to join us, is welcomed. You don't have to stay here. " Rick announced, but as none of the officers budged, they knew that it was time to leave. The cops backed into the hospital, and shut the door. It was over.

Emily rushed over to Carol, and she fell to her knees at her friends side. Daryl, who was supported by an injured Beth, was crying his eyes out. Emily herself could not understand what had happened. But she did know that Daryl would have no problems blaming himself for this.

Emily could feel Rick's hands on her shoulders, this just made her cry more. Carol looked peaceful, as if she was in a deep slumber. The truth hurt so much more at the sight of the woman, who had become her dear friend.

Everything else seemed irrelevant at the time. She could hear Maggie and Beth crying whilst they embraced each other, and she could also hear Rick's voice, trying to soothe her.

"Emily, we have to go. " Rick understood that they couldn't stay there, but she would not leave Carol like this.

"We can't leave her. Not like this." she cried, and then stood up on shaky legs.

"We're not. We'll bring her with us." Rick comforted her, and pulled her into his strong arms. Emily cried on his shoulder for a while and then realized that this would be the last time that she got to hug Rick for a while. She had nearly forgotten her promise to Abraham, but now, it seemed so unnecessary. She couldn't leave Rick. Not now.

She sneaked out of his arms, and looked around for Abraham. She didn't need to look very far as the large man approached her.

"You should go with Rick. I won't have any use for you, sobbing like that." Behind Abrahams harsh words, she knew that he was doing her a kindness. "Say something before I change my damn mind." Abraham continued, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Thank you." Emily replied. She had so much more to say, but the words were not ready to come out. Abraham just smirked at her, before he made his way over to Maggie, Glenn and Beth.

"What about you two?"

"I won't go without Beth, I just got her back." Maggie stuttered. For the first time since Emily had gotten to know her, she did not speak with her usual confidence.

"I'll come. I won't leave your side. " Beth said to Maggie. Emily understood how this must feel for Daryl. The hunter seemed hurt, but the fact that he had just lost a dear friend made him look very conflicted.

After that, they all started to clear out. They managed to find a big van, and they split the gas that was in the church bus to make sure that they would find their way back. Glenn and Rick wrapped up Carol's body and set it in the van so that they could bury her properly. Of course, they had to make sure that she would not come back, Emily both looked away and covered her ears at that point.

She hugged Maggie and Glenn goodbye and greeted Beth, for the first time. She was sure that they would see each other again, but for now, Emily's main focus was getting back to the mortuary, so that Carol could be properly buried. She noticed that Rick and Abraham were talking, but she did not ask him about what until they were in the van and on their way home. Rick and Emily chose to ride in the front seat of the van with Daryl, who just sat there quietly. Emily had seen his good bye with Beth. She knew that the blonde had placed a swift kiss on his lips, and that they had mumbled something to each other.

"What did you and Abraham talk about?" she asked Rick, who was driving.

"He gave me a map. Said to come to Washington. He did mention another thing though. A safe zone. "

This managed to peak Emily's interest in spite of her current state of grief. "What?"

"Alexandria."


	17. Author's note

**Author's note: Hey guys! I noticed that I have gotten some reactions from my previous chapter. Whilst I do adore Bethyl, I won't deny that, I do feel like you are absolutely correct in the sense that this is a Rick/OC, and I can assure you that it will stay that way. Rick and Emily are my primary priority, not getting Daryl and Beth some spotlight. I do understand that some of you feel sort of betrayed by the fact that Carol was killed off, but I promise you that it was not in an attempt to "send a message" to Carylers. It was simply because of her and Emily's relationship, and I felt like this was needed so that the story could evolve. I do enjoy Caryl as well, and I'm not trying to make this into another story about Daryl. Simply because I'm a bit sick of the fact that he gets so much attention in this fandom. But, I didn't post this simply to rant, just to assure you all that Rickily will always be the main focus of this story. Anything else, well, I can promise that will have to hold a place in my different stories. Sorry if I let some of you down, but come on, stick with me. We're in for one hell of a ride!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey dolls! It's been a while, I've been getting increasingly bad at posting regularly, which I apologize for, but life does get in the way most of the time. As always, I appreciate and read all of your reviews, and they are all equally appreciated. Hope you enjoy!**

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><p>Ricks POV<p>

If there was one thing that you got used to in this life, it would certainly be that everyone that you met would ultimately meet their demise. After a while, and after he had lost so many people that mattered to him, Rick found himself to be completely numb. He knew that he had Carol's corpse in the back of the van, he knew all that. But he couldn't bring himself to grief. He guessed that after a while, the brain rejects any sort of thoughts that would make him weak. And this was certainly the type of thing that would make him loose perspective. Carol had been with the group since the very beginning. He had seen her go from a quiet woman that tolerated her ass of a husband, to someone that knew how to take care of herself. She had grown tremendously, so the fact that she had to end her life because of a mistake, was anything but fair.

He knew that Daryl would blame himself. If Rick had been in his good friend's shoes, he would have probably done the same. Rick glanced to his side, and saw that Emily was staring down on her lap. Carol had been a very good friend to her, which Rick had always appreciated. Carol welcomed her with open arms, and was part of getting Emily to stay with them. Or, with him. He wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything that had just happened was just a hoax. Carol was alive and well, this was all just a bad dream. But it wasn't. He had no way of easing her pain, which was incredibly frustrating.

"Try and get some sleep, darlin'. We'll be home soon." he mumbled to Emily, and placed his right hand on her lap.

"We have no home, Rick. Remember?" Emily muttered back.

Rick frowned at her words. He didn't quite know the appropriate thing to say. She was right, of course. The mortuary was not safe, and they did have to leave. Right now, he needed to give the remainder of his group something to hope for. In all honesty, they would probably not see Glenn, Maggie or Beth for a good while, and they needed to keep moving. He had been trying to keep her spirits up, that they could make a proper home to live in for so long, that he had nearly forgotten that he was partly lying.

Rick kept his eyes on the road, and did not speak again until Daryl suddenly said:

"Stop the car!"

Rick immedietly stopped, and then looked over at him.

"What is it?"

"Here. We should bury her here." Daryl muttered,opened the passenger door on his side and jumped out of the van. Rick instantly did the same, and he could hear that Emily was schooching out as well. Rick saw a small creek on the side of the road, it looked beautiful. It seemed untouched, and the water was clear. He knew that Daryl was right, Carol should be buried her. Rick could imagine her taking a moment just to look at it, she had always been one to appreciate beautiful views. It sure beat being buried in that graveyard that was probably going to be run over by walkers several times. This seemed more private in a way. A place that Carol could truly rest.

"She would have liked it." Rick said to Daryl, offering him a long look. The hunter shrugged and went down to the creek. Rick opened up the back of the van, and found a bucket that would have to do for a shovel. He tried not to look at Carol's body, and quickly pulled out the bucket and shut the door. Emily was already down at the creek with Daryl and helped him loosen up the dirt so that it would be easier to dig.

Rick approached them with the bucket and proceeded to help them dig a grave for their dear friend. After about fourty minutes, they had dug a sufficient enough hole. Emily had found two long sticks that she had tied together with a piece of cloth that she had ripped from her shirt to look like a cross. Rick and Daryl headed over to the van and relucantly carried Carol's body from the van and gently eased her down into the grave that they had just dug. Daryl started to quickly fill it up with dirt, as if the faster her could cover her, the faster this would all be over with. Rick knew that it would not be that easy for the other man, but he could understand him.

The three of them stared in silence at the grave, no words needed to be said. Rick reached out and drew Emily to his side. She leaned into the crook of his arm, and he bent his head down to place a kiss on the top of her head. Rick looked over at Daryl, and saw that tears were streaming down his face.

They stood there for a while, just glancing at their dear friends final resting place, before Daryl mumbled something inaudible and rushed over to the van. Rick could hear the passenger door slam shut. He let out a sigh and drew Emily in an embrace. "I love you. She did too." he stated, and held her as she cried.

"Let's just go. We shouldn't stay." Emily whispered, and looked up at him. Rick looked back into her swollen brown eyes and then leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was salty from her tears, but she did reciprocate. They walked back together and shut the back door of the van, before they made their way back into the car.

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><p>Emily offered to drive, telling him that it would be good to focus on something else for a while. They had been driving for about an hour and Rick had nearly dozed off when Emily spoke up:<p>

"How did Abraham find out about that safe place? And why hasn't he told us before?"

"I don't know. 'Said he heard about it from a group they had tagged along with a while back. Said he would have made an attempt to go there if it hadn't been for Eugene. " It did seem odd that Abraham had never thought to bring it up before, but Rick guessed that it had a lot to do with the fact that Abraham wanted them all to join him to Washington.

"So, what do you think? Should we go? There's not a whole lot of us left."

"Yeah, it depends I guess. I can't tell when Maggie, Glenn and Beth are going to be back from D.C, but I don't think we can wait at the mansion." Rick muttered. He did not want to bring what was left of the group on a wild goose chase. But, then again, he was faced with the same issue that he always reached when debating this particular issue. They couldn't stay where they were.

" 'How long will it take to go from the mortuary?" Daryl asked. The hunter didn't seem at all interested to know Rick's answer, but he probably felt the need to do something other than stare out the window.

"I reckon we could be there in a week or two. 'Gotta fill up on gas, though." Rick shrugged, and placed a hand on Emily's thigh.

"We should go. Anythin's better than that dump." Daryl muttered back, and resumed looking out the window.

"Yeah, I'm with Daryl. We have a van, it should be fine. If it turns out to be a dead end, we can probably find some other shelter there. " Emily spoke up, keeping her eyes on the road, but Rick could feel that she placed one of her hands on his.

"Fine. Let's see if we can find some gas station on the way. "

Rick had no energy left in him to worry about all the different ways that this could pan out. He needed to find a safe place for his children, and his girlfriend. The latter could obviously take care of herself, she had proven to him that he had a terrible habit of underestimating her, but he still felt inadequate when he watched her get hurt over and over again. Emily was an incredibly strong woman, but Rick wondered when she would finally crack.

They soon passed a gas station. Emily had found three gasoline jugs, and they reckoned that it would suffice for at least most of the way. They would have to go scouting for more, but it was a start. When they finally arrived at the mortuary, they saw a couple of walkers lurking around the house. They quickly took them out, and proceeded to enter the house. They were instantly met by Carl and Michonne. Carl ran to hug Rick, who was instantly relieved to see him. After they had hugged, Carl went to hug Emily. Rick took Judith from Michonne's arms, and held the baby girl tight. In spite of all that had happened, seeing Judith still made him believe that there must be good in this world. His dirty skin made such a contrast to Judith's porcelain skin.

"How did it go?" Rick asked Michonne.

"Fine. We haven't had any trouble. What about you? Where is everyone?"

There was dead silence for nearly a minute before Rick sighed and said:

"Maggie, Glenn and Beth are on their way to Washington, helpin' out Abraham. We lost Carol."

Both Michonne and Carl looked shocked. Rick could see that tears were beginning to well up in Carl's eyes. Emily bent down on her knees and held the boy tight. Rick winced as Carl began to sob. He watched as Carl sobbed on Emily's shoulder, and he was glad in a way that his son felt so safe around her. Safe enough to cry.

Michonne was not one for crying, but Rick could see that she was saddened. Daryl walked out, which Rick could understand. It was all still too fresh, and too hard for the other man.

"Pack your bags, we're leavin'. Abraham heard of a safe place, it's in Virginia, a few miles from Washington. " Rick felt as if it was best to rip off the band aids one after one. Michonne, who had always seemed to trust his judgement simply nodded and went away to pack up her things. Rick went to pack up his, Carl and Judith's things when he felt a hand tug on his shirt. He turned around and saw Emily standing there, with Carl behind her.

"Give me Judith. We'll go pack up what's left of the food." she whispered. Rick handed the baby over to her and swiftly leaned in to place a kiss on her forhead.

Rick was still amazed that he had been able to find someone like her in this day and age. It felt like in some ways, their relationship was still entirely new. There was still so much that they didn't know about each other, but at the same time, it felt like they had been together for many years. He was still trying to get over his insecurities, whether or not it was fair of him to lock her up with two kids and a man that was at times instable. But he was selfish enough to not care all that much. He trusted that if Emily was unhappy, she would say something.

After he had packed up his things, along with Carl, Judith and Emily's packs, he went downstairs to find that everyone was already packed. Judith was asleep in Emily's arms, whilst Carl stood beside her, simply staring down at the floor.

"Now, I know this must seem unsafe. But when we get there, and it's safe, we could finally have a chance at a stable home. Let's be safe for Carol. " Rick stated with determination, and after recieveing a weak smile from Emily, they all headed out to the van. It was time for their next big roadtrip, hopefully, it was the last one that they would have to go on.


End file.
